


castaway (my cries are blocked by the horizon)

by CassandraStarflower



Series: castaway [1]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon is Whatever I Want, Apocalypse, Crossover, Dimension Travel, Flashbacks, Gen, How is that not a tag, Platonic Bedsharing, Universe Travel, and it's show canon with whatever bits and pieces i want from the comics, i picked and chose from the comics for batman, my specialty - coming up with an idea. writing it. and then posting it with no warning at all, sort of time travel too
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-13
Updated: 2021-03-14
Packaged: 2021-03-13 22:33:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 17
Words: 20,667
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29409129
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CassandraStarflower/pseuds/CassandraStarflower
Summary: In the wake of arriving to find a changed timeline and the Sparrow Academy, Five uses his powers again, desperately hurling himself and his siblings through time and space.This time, they don’t find themselves in Dallas. Or in the past.No.They’re in another universe- the DC universe. And it gets worse.(Five's powers always come with a consequence. And if there's one thing that the Umbrella Academy does best, it's cause the end of the world.)
Relationships: The Batfamily, The Hargreeves Family
Series: castaway [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2184432
Comments: 231
Kudos: 253





	1. Jason and Five

**Author's Note:**

> This may be one of the longest opening chapters I’ve ever written.  
> Anyway, this is my thirteenth Batman fic and my third Umbrella Academy one. Also, I have no idea where I'm going with it. Hope people enjoy it!  
> Fic title from Frequency by Starset.

Apparently, they could never have a normal fucking day. 

Jason Todd, formerly Robin, previously dead, and currently the very much alive Red Hood, stood on a rooftop one building over from where a giant roiling cloud of blueish energy had formed ten minutes ago. Nothing was happening. 

Except the aforementioned giant roiling cloud of blueish energy existing. 

This was technically two buildings closer than Bruce would probably prefer, but Fuck Batman, as Jason liked to say, who cared if he stood this close. This way he could shoot any monsters that crawled out. 

When something did fall out of the cloud, Jason raised his gun- and hesitated. 

It wasn’t a monster. 

It was a kid. 

_Five Hours Earlier, In Another Universe_

Immediately after the “Sparrow Academy” made their appearance, Reginald gave them the order to attack. The Umbrella siblings promptly chose to flee instead of fight, since the Sparrows were probably just as much victims of Reginald as they were. 

“Where the hell do we go now?” Diego yelled, knife in hand. He hadn’t thrown it yet, but he would soon. The creepy green cube seemed to be lowering the temperature pretty rapidly, and Five kept seeing flickers of the apocalypse in the corners of his eyes. 

“I have an idea!” he shouted. 

“Oh, great!” Klaus yelled back. “Please tell me it _doesn’t_ involve time travel!” 

“Just grab on!” Five held his arms out. Vanya grabbed one without hesitation, eyes determined. 

Klaus hesitated, chewing on his lower lip, then grabbed Five’s other arm. 

“What if we mess the timeline up more?” Luther called.

“I don’t care right now!” Five yelled. They just needed to get _out of here._

Allison grabbed Klaus’ hand. Diego grabbed Allison’s other arm. Luther grabbed Diego’s hand. The six of them kept running, hands linked, and Five shut his eyes to concentrate as they hurtled down the street, chased by six nearly-thirty-year-olds and a floating green cube. 

He felt his power, deep inside him, and reached, hands open and grasping. Space bent around his fingers and he _tore._

The power surged through him, through his siblings, ricocheting from one to another, a solid link (missing one, it felt like there was a _gap_ between Five and Vanya and they all knew what that gap was), and Five screamed with effort as space ripped apart in front of them. They went hurtling straight into a wormhole and then everything went black. 

_Now. Gotham City, New Jersey._

The cloud vanished the moment the kid touched the roof and Jason wasted no time in leaping to the next roof over. 

The kid was small, probably Damian’s age, a bit older maybe. Dark hair, pale skin, wearing a school uniform of some kind. He was unconscious, with dark circles evident under his eyes, like Tim after a long bout of no sleep. 

Jason cautiously approached, kneeling. The kid stayed unconscious. He reached out and put two fingers on the kid’s throat, counting silently. 

The kid’s pulse was thready and weak. Jason frowned and activated his comm. “So, you know the giant blue cloud of energy?” 

“The one that disappeared a minute ago?” Tim asked. 

“Yeah, that one. I’m on the roof where it was. There’s a kid here, he fell out of it. Unconscious, weak pulse.” 

“Take him to the Cave.” Bruce ordered. Jason rolled his eyes, but obligingly scooped the kid up. He was dead weight. 

“Please don’t fucking die on me.” Jason muttered. The kid did not respond. 

Rude. 

\---

The whole family currently stood in the Batcave, staring at the very unconscious teenager on the bed in medical. Leslie was bent over him, clicking her tongue every so often as she found something new. She had already disinfected and treated an infected shrapnel wound on his stomach, another infected wound (this time a bullet graze on his shoulder), and was currently dealing with several dozen minor cuts and scrapes. 

“And he fell out of the… cloud?” Bruce asked again. 

“Yes.” Jason resisted the urge to roll his eyes. 

“Oh, what’s this _now?”_ Leslie complained from over by the bed. “What hit his head, a frying pan?” 

“Were any of his wounds treated?” Bruce asked, approaching Leslie, who glanced up with a scowl. 

“Yes, the bullet graze and the shrapnel wound. Both were stitched and bandaged, if you can call a kid’s band-aid stuck directly on the injury without any cleaning bandaged. From the angle of the stitches on the graze, I’d say he stitched it up himself.” 

Bruce frowned. 

Dick glanced up from the computer. “I contacted the League. Dr. Fate’s busy with something, but Zatanna’s willing to come.” 

Bruce nodded. Dick glanced back down. 

The kid woke up. 

\---

Five woke up with a pounding headache, a dead feeling in his chest, and bright lights stabbing directly into his eyes. 

What the hell had happened? 

“Oh, he’s awake.” a woman said above him. 

Oh yeah. They’d been chased by their replacements, and Five had transported them with his powers without any thoughts except _away._

He squinted at the woman, an older woman he didn’t recognize. “Who are you?” he demanded, though his voice was a bit rough. 

She raised an eyebrow and said, “My name is Dr. Thompkins.” 

This… explained nothing. 

“What’s your name?” she asked. 

He stared at her, debating. Real name, or fake one? Benefits of the real name, none really, benefits of the fake name, they wouldn’t think he was lying to them since his real name was a number. Oh well, not like Five had ever done things the easy way. 

“My name is Five.” 

“Five, like the number?” a new voice interrupted. Five pushed himself upright, ignoring the throb of his headache, and stared with narrowed eyes at this new person, who was wearing body armor in red and black and staring right back with unapologetic curiosity through a domino mask. A big one, more elaborate than what Five and his siblings had ever worn, but a domino mask nonetheless. Actually, everyone in the room was wearing a mask except for the doctor. 

“Yes, like the number.” Five said. 

“Why?” 

Five stared at the speaker, the same one from before. He couldn’t even tell quite how old this person was, but they were definitely not an adult. 

Also, he had no idea why his name was Five, except that their father was a dickhead, as Klaus would put it, and- 

Shit. 

“How did you find me?” he demanded. 

“You fell out of some kind of wormhole,” a guy in a leather jacket volunteered. 

“Was there anybody else?” 

“Nope.” 

Five cursed. This was bad, very bad. He couldn’t help but think of the way they’d been separated last time, spread across years. And the way they’d been separated before that, with the distance of time and death and trauma. 

“Why, was there supposed to be?” leather jacket man asked. 

“My siblings.” Five admitted. 

“How many?” the man in the black armor (complete with a cowl that for some reason had little pointy ear things on the top) asked. 

“Si- five.” 

“Five? Like as in, five siblings?” the first person to speak asked. Five rolled his eyes. 

“Yes, five siblings, every single one an absolute pain in the ass.” 

Leather jacket man laughed. 

“Who are you people, anyway?” Five asked. 

They all stared at him. 

“You don’t… know who we are?” the blonde girl in the purple and black armor asked. 

“No.” Five scoffed. 

“We’re vigilantes, or superheroes I guess.” a man in black and blue offered. “I’m Nightwing.” 

Clearly a code name. Five raised an eyebrow. 

“That’s Red Robin,” Nightwing went on, pointing at the teenager in red and black, “that’s Red Hood,” he pointed at Leather Jacket Man, “That’s Batman,” the man in black, “that’s Batgirl,” the blonde girl, “that’s Robin,” a short kid in a hooded cape and red tunic, “that’s Black Bat,” a girl dressed in black armor, “and that’s Signal,” a teenager in yellow and black. 

Five stared at them. He was beginning to think he was in the wrong universe. 

\---

The kid, Five, had no idea who any of them were. That would be understandable in the early years, when Batman had been but a myth and the rest of them nonexistent, but now? When Batman was all over the news every other week stopping the latest of the Rogues’ schemes and fighting with the Justice League against alien invasions? 

What the actual fuck. 

“I think.” the kid said. “I think I may be in the wrong universe.”

Oh boy. Jason leaned back against the table, raising an eyebrow. This was new. Normally people from other universes at least had some idea of who Batman was. 

Well. 

At least that he existed. 

This was going to be interesting.


	2. Cassie, Vanya, and Five

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vanya falls out of a wormhole and lands in San Francisco, in a very weird universe.   
> At least she doesn’t have amnesia this time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did anybody notice Five’s little moment of forgetting that Ben’s gone?   
> Anyway, I changed up the summary a bit and added to the tags. Platonic Bedsharing is one of my favorite tropes so I had to write it.   
> Also, I am aware that Five mentions Batman in the show, this chapter explains that a bit, like why he didn’t recognize Batman on sight.

The Titans had been keeping an eye on the latest weirdness, which was a giant blue cloud of energy. They hadn’t contacted anyone about it yet, but it was definitely weird. 

Cassie Sandsmark, current Wonder Girl, had just shown up at the edge of the field the cloud was hovering over when the person fell out. 

It was a small, pale woman in a black coat who hit the ground awkwardly and stumbled to her feet, reaching up towards the cloud. It vanished. The woman shouted “No!” 

Cassie scooted forward, fists clenched, eyes nervously fixed on the woman. Whoever she was, she had just come through some kind of wormhole, and was probably dangerous. 

The woman turned around and set eyes on her, and promptly looked surprised. 

“Uh, hi.” Cassie offered, waving. The woman stared at her. 

“Who are you?” the woman asked. 

“Uh… Wonder Girl?” Cassie answered, confused. Normally, the design on her armor and the bracelets were enough to tell people she was at least affiliated with Wonder Woman, even if they’d never seen her. But this woman apparently didn’t recognize even the alias of Wonder Girl, because her face stayed blank. 

“Uh, sorry, I’ve never heard of you.” the woman said hesitantly. “Um, I don’t think that’s a good thing.” 

“No, probably not.” Cassie agreed mildly. “You should probably come with me. You did just fall out of a wormhole.” 

The woman glanced up at the sky, then shrugged and followed Cassie back to the Tower. 

\---

Vanya was having a bad day. 

Scratch that, a bad week. 

A bad life? 

At least she didn’t have amnesia this time. And she was pretty sure she could, in a pinch, knock everyone out with a sound wave and run. Being special was really useful sometimes. 

It was possible that they had shot way too far into the future, though Vanya, thinking of her siblings’ old code names, did not think that Wonder Girl sounded like something her father or an acolyte of his might choose. 

Then again, if they’d gone far enough into the future, maybe her dad was long dead and so were anybody else he’d trained. 

“So, what’s your name?” Cyborg, the cyborg who had introduced himself as Cyborg, asked. 

Vanya blinked. “Vanya Hargreeves.” she answered honestly. What else was she supposed to say? It wasn’t like she had a code name (except for her original name, and Number Seven wasn’t really a code name… if anything,  _ Vanya _ was the code name. Huh. Maybe she should figure out a code name for herself, just to fit in. Get an umbrella tattoo. Her siblings wouldn’t like it, but hey, it was her body. Her life.)

“Okay, and have you ever heard of the Justice League?”

Vanya stiffened. Because she absolutely had… heard of the comics, that is. The very fictional comics detailing the adventures of the very fictional superheroes who were members of the very fictional Justice League. 

Shit. She wasn’t in the future, she was… 

“I think I’m in the wrong universe.” she said tentatively, and she desperately hoped that her siblings were safe. 

She had never really gotten into superhero comics, given that by the time she was out of her father’s house she’d become entirely disillusioned with the idea of superheroes, having watched that life destroy her brothers and sister and spent years being pushed aside in favor of them. But she knew that there were some truly dangerous people in the Justice League comics. Villains on a level with Dr. Terminal or any of the terrible villains her siblings had battled over the years. 

_ Please be safe,  _ she prayed. She couldn’t lose another sibling. Not after Ben. 

\---

Five would be the first to admit he’d never read any comics. He’d never seen the point- his siblings were like a real-life Justice League, and he’d lived in the Academy where Reginald never allowed those things, and after… 

Well. Fragile magazines and comic books had not really survived, and anyway he’d been more focused on other things, like surviving. And he’d only heard of the superheroes of comics in the vaguest of terms. 

He knew about Batman, sort of. Hell, he’d compared Diego to the guy, once. But he’d never actually done any sort of  _ research  _ into comic book superheroes. What was the point? They were only stories. It had been Klaus who had been interested in comics, and they’d all-but stopped making those bigger comics by the time the Apocalypse had rolled around, apparently, probably because of Dad and his ego and money. 

Now he wished he knew at least a  _ little _ bit more, since apparently he’d blundered his way right into a comic-book universe. 

What a day he was having. A week. Months. A life, probably. 

He was too drained to fight the suggestion of sleep, and merely limped stubbornly up the stairs (he refused to let them either carry him or use a wheelchair) to a guest room to lie down and stare at the ceiling in silence. 

He felt so drained. He raised a hand, exhausted, watched it tremble, and  _ pushed. _

Nothing. Not even a flicker of a warp, not even the way things twisted when he was too tired to jump. 

Five closed his eyes. He’d screwed up.  _ Badly.  _

\---

Tim had turned up after about ten minutes of their guest looking terrified and explaining that while she had in fact heard of the Justice League, they were fictional in her universe, at which point they learned that the Bats had gotten a visitor, too. 

“Who?” Vanya Hargreeves asked, pale-faced. 

“He says his name is Number Five.” Tim answered, and Cassie blunked. 

“Take me to him,” Vanya half-pleaded. Tim eyed her for a moment, then nodded. 

He led her off to the transporter and they left, though Tim warned them to be on the lookout for the other four that had been traveling with them. 

\---

Vanya had teleported plenty of times before, with Five, since he’d practiced taking other people with him using her. 

This was different, a lot different, and she wasn't sure she liked it.

But anyway, here she was in the actual Batcave, which even she had heard of despite her general disconnect from superhero comics and shit (most of which weren’t even being made anymore because  _ Dad, _ so she hadn’t read any, but she heard stuff). 

This was nuts. 

Absolutely crazy. 

What even was her life anymore. 

“Where’s Five?” she asked anxiously. Her escort, who had introduced himself as Red Robin, said, “Upstairs, I’ll show you. I think he’s asleep.” 

Her brows shot straight up. “Five? Asleep?” 

Someone behind the computer snorted. Red Robin ignored them, seemingly on purpose. “Well, I’ll show you to the room he’s in.” 

Vanya trailed the teenager up the stairs, chewing on her lower lip. Hopefully Five was okay. She wasn’t sure when the last time he’d slept was. Not recent, that was for sure. He seemed to have had the two weeks from hell. 

The house up above the cave was fancy, but Vanya had grown up in Reginald Hargreeves’ house, and therefore was immune. 

There were  _ way _ less mounted animal heads and portraits of the homeowner here, anyway. There were portraits of a couple, but didn’t Batman have dead parents? 

There were more stairs. If Vanya hadn’t already  _ been _ tired, the stairs alone would’ve exhausted her. 

Red Robin quietly turned the doorknob of the room, probably a guest room, and Vanya stepped in, keeping a close eye on her younger-older brother. He didn’t stir. 

Wow, he was asleep. 

Red Robin retreated, letting the door click shut behind her, and she sighed and walked over to the bed. 

“Scoot over, Five.” she muttered, dropping onto the bed. Five stirred enough to blink at her hazily. 

“Seven?” he asked, sounding about five times younger. Like he was actually the age he looked. 

“Yeah, it’s me.” she sighed, and slumped onto the pillow, scraping her shoes off and tossing the coat to the floor. 

Five shifted a bit, pressing into her side. “Good.” he said sleepily, still sounding painfully young and vulnerable. “I missed you.” 

Vanya swallowed and snaked an arm underneath him. It was just like when they were kids, all seven of them sharing a bed. 

God, Vanya missed those days. All curled up in someone’s bed, usually Diego’s since it was tucked into an alcove, a puppy pile of sleepy children taking the small luxuries they could get. 

Five shifted next to her. She absently tucked herself a little bit closer. 

Vanya really hoped the others were okay. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So basically, in the TUA universe, comics exist, like DC and Marvel. When the Academy debuts in 2003, Reginald starts selling comics of them, which start competing pretty heavily with DC and Marvel since, ya know, the Umbrella Academy actually exists. Reginald leans on the companies with his money and a few inventions of his, and within a couple of years the superhero comic industry is basically destroyed. So the siblings, having been very sheltered from pop culture as children and having little interest in superhero shit as adults, don’t know much about the DC universe. Diego and Klaus know the most, and most of what they know is the “cool stuff” and basically a fairly surface-level understanding of comics.   
> Wow, that’s a long explanation!   
> Anyway, come find me on tumblr @cassandra-starflower! My messages are open and my inbox is empty and I’d love to hear from you all!


	3. Tim, Clark, Allison, and Five

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tim debates the benefits of tying Damian up and sitting on him. Superman finds a wormhole. Allison mothers her brother and sister.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> These chapters just keep coming, but don’t expect daily updates forever! I am notoriously bad at keeping any kind of schedule and am also in university. I currently have this chapter and Chapter Seven stored up, parts of chapter four and chapter eight written, and I am very excited about chapter seven, just gonna go ahead and say it. :)

Now that their guests were asleep, Tim Drake (former Robin, current Red Robin) was planning on doing some work. That is, trying to figure out where they came from. Another universe according to both, and neither had explained yet how they’d ended up falling through a wormhole. 

No sooner had Tim started down the stairs then he’d seen Damian going up the stairs, headed for the guest room. 

“What are you doing?” he asked with deep suspicion. 

Damian narrowed his eyes at Tim. “Nothing.” 

“Right,” Tim said. 

Damian kept walking. Tim waited a few moments, then followed him on light feet. He was still in costume, while Damian was in civvies and appeared to have at least one knife. 

No, Tim did not know where Damian had gotten the knife. Or how he’d snuck it past Alfred, since Damian technically wasn’t supposed to have knives in the Manor after the last time he’d stabbed Tim and gotten blood all over the upholstery on one of the couches. 

He watched Damian pause outside the door to the guest room, then nudge it open silently. 

“Damian,” he hissed, and Damian whipped around to glare at him. 

The two guests were both curled up on the bed together, asleep. Tim grabbed the doorknob and tugged the door closed again before turning to Damian. 

“Leave them alone. I put a bug in there earlier, we’ll know if they’re up to something.” he scolded. 

Damian glared even harder. “Don’t tell me what to do, Drake!” he hissed, before marching off towards his own room. 

Tim rolled his eyes and stalked back down the hallway. 

Time to get to work. 

\---

The wormhole had appeared half an hour ago, and Clark (also and perhaps better known as Superman) had called the League. It turned out that two other similar wormholes had spat out a teenager and a woman in Gotham and San Francisco earlier, and that the teen had told the Bats that he’d been traveling with five others, so there were four left who might show up. 

So he wasn’t entirely surprised when a woman fell out of the wormhole. 

He was a little surprised when she got up with little apparent effort and clear training and looked around sharply. 

The wormhole closed. 

The woman looked at him. 

“Oh, _shit._ ” she groaned, immediately. 

This… was not people’s usual reaction to seeing him, if he were to be totally honest, and it threw him off. 

“Um, excuse me?” he said politely. The woman just dropped her face into her hands. 

\---

Allison had not exactly been expecting a complete lack of any siblings _and_ fucking Superman when she landed, okay? 

Yeah, she knew who Superman was. She hadn’t read any comics, exactly, but when one of the movies she’d auditioned for in the early days of her career was an adaptation of Superman in which she wanted the role of Lois Lane, it was hard not to know at least a bit about the guy. 

The _fictional character._

She hadn’t gotten the role, either, so she’d sort of forgotten about the whole thing. 

Perhaps that had been a bad move. 

“Sorry,” she apologized. “This is just unexpected.” 

“What were you expecting?” Superman asked politely, landing on the roof. 

Allison tugged absently at her gloves. “Not Superman, to be perfectly honest.” 

He nodded. “I assume you were traveling with other people?” 

“How did you know?” she said sharply. 

“We- the League, that is- have found two other people who fell out of wormholes. A woman and a teenager.” 

Allison managed a slight snort. “He wouldn’t like being called a teenager.” 

Superman raised an eyebrow. Allison just kept talking. “Where are they? I need to see them.” 

“I’ll take you to Gotham. They’re at the Cave, I believe.” 

Allison nodded, bracing herself. She needed to make sure they were okay. 

\---

Five woke up slowly, not long enough after falling asleep. His head was still throbbing, but he was surrounding in warmth and almost wanted to fall asleep again. 

Vanya was curled up next to him. He blinked, recalled half-asleep telling her that he’d missed her, and resisted the urge to scream. 

_Why._

He hated being vulnerable and out of it in front of people. He always said things he regretted. 

He stretched his legs carefully, wincing as the movement pulled at his stitches. 

Wait. 

Moving carefully, he propped himself up and untucked his shirt, staring down at the bandaged wound on his stomach. The bandaging was white and clean. 

Right. There’d been a doctor and he’d been unconscious. Of course they’d checked him for injuries. 

He sighed and slumped back down a bit. Vanya was close enough that moving would probably only wake her up, and there wasn’t really much he could even do right now. 

Five raised his hands again, staring at them. He tried again, reaching for his powers. 

Nothing. 

Absolutely nothing. 

They were in another universe, one full of comic book characters, and Five had brought them here. 

And his powers were gone. His chest felt hollow. Oh, they might come back, eventually, but for the moment he was powerless. 

He swallowed, clasped his hands, and curled closer to his sister, the walking nuclear bomb in a fragile human form. 

Maybe that would be enough to keep them both safe. He remembered her, taking out nearly the entire Commission. 

Ending the world. 

He needed a weapon. A knife, a gun, something. He vaguely recalled that Batman was against guns for some reason, which was why Five had drawn those comparisons between Batman and Diego, since Diego also didn’t like guns. 

Mostly because it was a lot harder for him to control the bullets from a gun than it was to control the knives from his hands. 

Goddammit. Five closed his eyes and let out a breath. 

The door creaked. Five sat up again, tensing. Vanya stirred and woke, blinking slowly. 

Allison poked her head into the room. 

\---

Allison’s heart was in her throat as she followed the old man, Alfred Pennyworth, up the stairs. Five and Vanya were here and safe and alive, but the rest of her brothers were in the wind. 

And how okay was Five? Probably not very, since he’d torn through space and hurled them to this universe. If _Allison_ had felt the pull on her own power, Five was probably incredibly drained. 

She wasn’t going to think about that pull on her power. There would be time to freak out about it later. 

Mr. Pennyworth nodded to a door and Allison stepped up to grab the knob, prepared to quickly assure her siblings that it was just her, just in case they didn’t realize. Five was fairly trigger-happy, she had learned, probably because of the whole temporal assassin thing. 

She peeked into the room and saw Five, sitting up in bed and staring at the door tensely, and Vanya, lifting her head from where she had apparently been sleeping. 

“Allison.” Five said, slumping back against the headboard. He looked _awful._ Not in a way that the people of this world would notice, but Allison could see it. 

His face was paler than usual, he had dark circles under his eyes, and his reflexes seemed slower. It eerily reminded her of when he’d passed out from his shrapnel wound. 

“Hi.” she said, stepping into the room and letting the door click. 

“The others?” Five asked, rubbing his forehead. Allison just shrugged helplessly, stepping over to the bed. 

For the first time, Five seemed to actually take in that Vanya had flopped into the bed with him. Or possibly that she’d been there first? Allison wasn’t totally sure who had gotten there first. He frowned at Vanya, who just shrugged and yawned. 

“We’ve been going nonstop for days,” Vanya pointed out through her yawn. “Except for you, Five, when did you last sleep before this?” 

Five paused. Tilted his head. “I was unconscious passing through the portal.” 

“That doesn’t count!” Allison objected, kicking her boots off and dropping the gloves on top. “Five, was it when you passed out in Jenkins’ murder attic?” 

“Leonard’s _what?”_ Vanya demanded. 

“I-” Five hesitated, clearly trying to remember. “I think so.” 

“Five!” Allison scolded. 

“There hasn’t been _time._ ” Five defended. 

“Leonard had a _what.”_ Vanya repeated. 

“I did mention his murder shrine, didn’t I?” Allison asked, shrugging her coat off and climbing into the bed, shoving Five down. 

“No! Maybe! I don’t know!” 

“He had pictures of us with our eyes scratched out in his attic.” 

Vanya dropped her head into her hands. “I can’t believe I _slept with him.”_

“It was definitely not a great decision.” Allison agreed. 

“Shut up.” Five mumbled, pressing his hands over his ears, sinking into the bed, and making a face. Allison exchanged a grin with Vanya and shifted to sandwich Five. 

Now all they needed was the rest of their siblings.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Five's siblings discover how bad his self-care is and make him sleep, more at eleven :)  
> There will be an eventual explanation of what exactly Five did, and why his powers seem to be gone.  
> Come find me on tumblr @cassandra-starflower! I’m lonely


	4. Luther, Jason, Bruce, and Five

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luther arrives in this strange universe and finds himself in one of the most dangerous places on this Earth.   
> Fortunately, he is very large.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, of all the siblings, Diego and Luther would have the easiest time of it in Crime Alley. Diego because he’s got the scars and the knives and the look of “i will fuck you up” and Luther because, well, look at him.   
> He’s Big. no one is going to fuck with someone who is roughly the size of a giant. No one.

Luther had just fallen out of the sky, again, and landed on top of a dumpster, again. 

This time, he wasn’t in Dallas. He was pretty sure. 

He also wasn’t in the 1960s. He was pretty sure. 

It was dark and smoggy, and people skulked in the shadows, paying him no attention as he climbed off the dumpster and looked around. 

Where had Five brought them? And where were the others? 

They hadn’t been holding on as hard as they should have, maybe. Luther frowned, rolling his shoulders and moving to the mouth of the alleyway. A few people looked his way like they wanted to cause trouble, then got an eyeful of his bulk and looked away again. 

For once, he was glad to be this size. 

He glanced around, checking his surroundings. Diego might mock, but Luther  _ had _ spent most of his life an active superhero, and he was good at watching his surroundings. He’d needed to be. He was all alone for so long. 

This city was strange and dark and polluted, and no one here slowed their steps. They moved with purpose and suspicion, not trusting anyone, avoiding eye contact. 

Many of them had weapons. Actual guns in several cases, knives in other cases. Look, Luther had spent years fighting criminals and villains and occasionally his siblings, and he knew what it looked like when someone was carrying a gun. Or a knife. 

(Diego certainly had long perfected the art of hiding as many knives as physically possible in his clothes. And then trying to, and often succeeding in, stabbing Luther with them. Luther had always  _ needed _ to know when someone had a knife.)

(To be fair, Diego often came off worse in their fights. Luther was good at breaking bones and leaving bruises. Breaking things.)

Now. How to find his siblings in this strange, dark city. 

\---

Jason had spotted the cloud as it disappeared, and quickly made his way towards it. The kid, Five, had been unconscious, after all, and the two women would definitely not have done well being dumped in Crime Alley. 

Unless they were hiding some pretty hefty skills. Which they easily could be. They’d come through wormholes, after all, and once the Five kid was able to stay conscious for longer then ten minutes Bruce was going to be interrogating them for every detail. 

Anyway, Jason realized pretty quickly that the guy who’d fallen through the wormhole wasn’t going to be getting any trouble. Hell, if Jason had still been a street kid, he would’ve run the other way. 

The guy was massive. Six five, broad, unnaturally bulky in a way that almost made Jason think of steroids, and he was scanning his surroundings with sharp eyes. 

“Hi there, pal.” Jason called from the fire escape. “You happen to drop through that wormhole?” 

The man looked up. “I did, yes.” 

“Then I think there’s some people you’ll wanna see. I’m Red Hood, by the way.” 

\---

“I’m-” Luther hesitated- Spaceboy was on the tip of his tongue, but it just didn’t almost quite fit anymore- it was a code name that had made far more sense when he was a child fresh off of his first ever trip into space. It didn’t fit the man who was fresh off of two apocalypses and trying to fix himself and his relationships. “Luther.” he finished. 

Red Hood had maybe noticed his pause, but Luther couldn’t see his face, so he had no idea what the guy was thinking. It made him uneasy, and reminded him of Dr. Terminal, who had also worn a helmet. 

His father had often told them that those who covered their faces entirely were cowards. Luther wasn’t so sure about that, Hazel and Cha-Cha covered their faces with mask-helmet things (he was pretty sure those things somehow turned to metal when they were put on) and those two weren’t cowards. It’d be hard to be a coward and have the guts to go into the Academy to hunt down Five. 

But it  _ had _ always been bad guys who wore helmets. 

Well. Luther was pretty durable, and if this guy knew about his siblings and possibly had one or two or more of them captive, he’d need to rescue them. And if the guy wasn’t a villain, then it would just be bad form to punch him. 

After all, this was another universe, it seemed, since Luther had never heard of this guy and would have if it’d been his own universe, whatever time period they might have landed in. 

(He ignored the niggling voice saying that it could be a villain that had risen against the Sparrow Academy, one that hadn’t appeared to fight the Umbrella Academy.) 

Luther followed the guy out of the alleyway, out of the city, and to a cave underneath a very fancy manor, then to the manor itself. 

Well, Luther had lived in his father’s house for roughly thirty years, he was used to it. 

“They’re asleep.” a very small and very angry-looking child who reminded Luther very strongly of Five said. 

Red Hood shrugged and pointed Luther to the guest room they were napping in. Luther carefully entered, trying very hard not to squeak the hinges or the floor, and discovered that Allison, Five, and Vanya were the three siblings that had already been found. 

Allison was the only one awake, and she smiled when she saw Luther. 

“Shhh.” She pointed at a sleeping Five. “He hasn’t slept since the day before the apocalypse.” 

“Wait, seriously?” Luther asked, making an effort to keep his voice down. 

“Seriously.” she confirmed. 

“Which one?” 

Allison snorted. “The first one, you know, the 2019 one.” 

Luther shook his head, decided to drop it for the moment, and made his way carefully to the armchair in the room and sat down. Allison laid her head back down on the pillow, sighing. 

Five and Vanya kept sleeping. 

\---

Bruce Wayne, currently Batman, was sitting in his study with his children, discussing their guests. 

“How did those wormholes open? That’s my big question.” Tim said. 

“You aren’t concerned about the kid with the massive fucking shrapnel wound?” Jason asked dryly. 

“Well, that too.” 

“They are certainly not biologically related.” Damian said. 

“Still siblings.” Cass responded. Damian merely sniffed. 

“How many are left?” Jason asked. 

“Uh, the kid said he had five siblings, so… two.” Dick said. “Course, he hasn’t told us anything  _ about _ his siblings, so.” 

“We’ll speak to them further in the morning, after breakfast.” Bruce said firmly. “Anything else?” 

“The kid didn’t recognize any of us,” Tim offered, “and Vanya didn’t recognize Cassie or the Titans, but had heard of the Justice League and immediately decided she was in another universe. Allison has heard of Superman at least.” 

“That’s interesting.” Dick said. “I wonder what kind of universe they come from?” 

\---

When Five woke up again, he felt vaguely dizzy. His chest no longer felt hollowed out, but just as he thought this- and raised his hand to check, warping the air faintly- his power drained again, leaving him hollowed out and very scared. 

He let his hand drop with a frustrated huff. This was bad. Really bad. 

Even in the Apocalypse, when he hadn’t been able to summon his powers for very long, even in that empty drained world lacking in any life at all, he hadn’t been this  _ drained. _

Something was wrong. Very, very wrong. 

What had he done? 

\---

Far, far away from Gotham and the Hargreeves, in a land inaccessible to most, a small girl opened her eyes and said, quietly and with great feeling: 

_ “Fuck.” _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Why yes, Five has technically been napping on and off for three chapters now. He needs his god damn sleep, okay? And it’s only been a few hours, getting towards three or four in the morning, since Chapter One, technically speaking, so it absolutely is Sleep Time.   
> Yes, the mystery of what Five did will be explained. Chapter Eight will cover that.   
> This chapter’s a little bit shorter, but I didn’t want to force it.   
> And yes, that little snippet at the end will be continued - in chapter eight.   
> No, i have no idea how long I’m going to be able to keep up the thousand-word chapters. Hopefully a while.   
> Come find me on tumblr @cassandra-starflower!


	5. Klaus, Beast Boy, and Dick

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Klaus arrives, breakfast time, and Five drops a bombshell.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Update: so the stuff I promised for chapter eight actually happens in chapter seven, because I’m a moron who forgot to check the actual chapter and only remembered that I had eight chapters in my doc so far. Chapter eight has different stuff happening in it that has some stuff to do with the snippet at the end of the last chapter, but different perspectives and stuff.   
> Also, yeah, I can’t keep up with daily updates. It’s driving me nuts, and I’m in university and definitely shouldn’t be trying to hold myself to an impossible update schedule. I will try to update as often as possible, but it just won’t be daily necessarily.   
> No proofreading because I want to go to bed.

When Klaus landed in an alleyway (and promptly fell on his ass), it was sunrise. He had no idea where he was. 

Definitely not Dallas, he decided, glancing around. Probably. Maybe. 

He got up and stretched, then bent and picked up his hat, plopping it back on his head. How he’d managed to hang on to it, he wasn’t sure, not with the ride Five had taken them on. 

His stomach twisted as he uneasily glanced around again. Where were his siblings? Had they landed in the same time period? In the same city? Or were they scattered to the four winds again, like last time? 

(Except, unlike last time, he didn’t have Ben. Was never going to have Ben again.) 

He needed to find a newspaper. 

Klaus wandered out of the alleyway, earning himself some odd looks from passerby, probably because he was dressed in a black coat and a cowboy hat. 

It was a  _ magnificent _ outfit, in his opinion, but some people just didn’t have  _ taste. _

He glanced around. Ah, there was a convenience store. If anyplace had newspapers when he couldn’t see a single stand, it’d be a convenience store. 

And so Klaus Hargreeves, one of the strangest people this very tired convenience store clerk had ever seen, sauntered right into the store, looking for a newspaper stand. 

And immediately realized that something was very, very wrong. 

The newspaper proclaimed that the year was 2021. The headline  _ screamed _ ‘JUSTICE LEAGUE DEFEATS VILLAINOUS PLOT!!’

Klaus stared at the newspaper for a long beat. Then he chuckled and wandered back out, straightening his hat. 

The clerk stood behind the counter, staring after him with a bewildered look. 

\---

Now, look, it had literally been a couple of hours ago that the Titans had found a woman falling out of a wormhole. Now they had another wormhole and no sign of a traveller from another universe. 

At least, until Beast Boy spotted the Hippie Jesus in the black cowboy hat wandering down the sidewalk muttering things like “this is not how I remember San Fran” and “wonder where the others are?” 

“Hi!” Beast Boy called, spiraling downward in eagle form and landing in front of the guy, shifting back to human (because according to all of his friends, it was “terrifying” and “nightmare-inducing” when he talked too long in animal form, because “beaks aren’t meant to  _ move _ like that” and “that’s  _ really _ not how reptile mouths work”, which, hmph.) 

The guy jumped back with a startled exclamation of “Christ on a cracker!” 

Beast Boy chose to ignore that strange exclamation and instead said “Did you maybe happen to fall out of a wormhole like three blocks from here a couple of minutes ago?” 

The guy squinted at him. “How did you know?” 

“Do you know someone named Vanya Hargreeves?” 

“She’s my sister- wait, if she blew something up we’re not related.” 

“Blew something-” Beast Boy squinted. “No. We just are supposed to take anybody who comes through a wormhole to Batman so you can all stick together and he can figure out what happened.” 

“I know what happened.” the guy said. 

“Yeah, but we don’t. You can tell Batman!” Beast Boy suggested, before adding, “Oh, hey, what’s your name?” 

“Klaus. Klaus Hargreeves.” 

\---

The Titans had called during breakfast with news of another traveller, this time a guy named Klaus. 

All four of the currently-present travellers had perked up at the news. 

“It’s just Diego who’s missing, then.” Allison said, nodding. 

“Well, in that case.” Five said dryly, clutching a cup of coffee with both hands. He had scared the living daylights out of Tim (up early due to unhealthy sleeping habits and an inability to let anything go, ever) earlier by teleporting into the kitchen in order to get coffee. 

Dick thought it was very funny and also very concerning. Five was a metahuman, or something, but how likely was it that the rest were the same? 

Well, only one way to find out! 

“So, Five.” Dick said, casually, pouring milk into his cereal. “You can teleport.” 

“Among other things.” Five said sourly, staring into his coffee. “If you were wondering, I am behind the wormholes. I took my siblings and jumped without actually concentrating on the destination at all.” 

“Is that how you did the time travel thing, too?” Allison asked, raising an eyebrow. Five ignored her. 

“And the rest of you?” Bruce asked from the head of the table, quietly cutting into his scrambled eggs with a fork. 

“We’ve all got powers, yes.” Allison confirmed. “Luther has super strength, Diego can manipulate trajectories, I have a  _ very _ persuasive voice, Klaus can talk to the dead, Five can teleport-” She broke off for a moment. “And Vanya can, uh-” 

“Convert sound waves into energy and manipulate that energy however I want.” Vanya finished. “I don’t have very good control yet. I didn’t know I had powers until recently.” 

Dick nodded along. He suspected, and he was pretty sure Bruce did too, that they were underplaying their abilities. It was the smart thing to do. They were in an unknown place, with unknown people. 

Speaking of. 

“How is it some of you have heard of the Justice League, but can’t recognize Batman in costume?” 

“Um.” Vanya said, glancing at her siblings. 

“You’re all fictional characters in our universe of origin.” Five said bluntly. “Or at least, I assume all of you. I was never very into comics.” 

“Cool.” Tim whispered. Probably about the comic thing. Dick would admit that it was cool, and also terrifying. 

“I mostly  _ heard _ of you.” Five finished. “I think Klaus and Diego were more into the superhero comics.” 

“I auditioned for a role in a Superman movie once.” Allison said, which was surprising. 

“You’re an actress?” Dick asked. 

“Yes, though I haven’t acted in a year or so.” Allison replied. 

“I never heard about you being in a superhero movie.” Vanya said suspiciously. 

“I didn’t get the role.” Allison replied airily. All three of her siblings squinted suspiciously at her. 

Just then, Alfred led Klaus Hargreeves into the room, and oh boy. 

He was wearing. 

A cowboy hat. 

“Good morning, Klaus!” Allison said sunnily, clearly glad for the distraction. “Did you know we’ve ended up in a comic-book universe?” 

Klaus beamed, sliding over to hug his sister. “I did! Very exciting.” 

Five put his face on the table. “I don’t see what’s so exciting about it. We’re stuck.” 

“You can just get us back, right?” Luther said. 

Five raised his head. “Wrong. My powers are…” he trailed off, glaring at his hands. “Not working right. I managed to teleport earlier, but it felt  _ wrong. _ And I can’t-” 

He tightened his hands into fists. “I probably just need time to recharge. I- this happened when i jumped into the future, too. I just needed time.” 

His siblings all stared at him. 

“Yeah, but. Like. A lot of time.” Klaus said. 

Five glanced at him and said nothing. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Why no, I don’t know how old Beast Boy is here. Just… he was a Teen Titan with Nightwing and the other OG titans, so assume he is in fact an adult. I’m not particularly fond of the way he and Raven keep getting aged down.   
> Also, the reason Five was able to teleport was that he napped long enough to recharge enough for a single jump. He just didn’t realize that one jump would drain him right back to zero, and it’s habit to jump everywhere.   
> Also, yes Allison absolutely downplayed their powers. Plus, another instance of one of the siblings correcting themselves when they almost mention Ben. Questions will be asked.   
> Come find me on tumblr @cassandra-starflower!


	6. Duke and Diego

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Signal finds the final living Hargreeves sibling.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m not as familiar with Duke’s story arc, but just assume he is post-finding out about his dad and whatever, and has all of his powers, and is Bruce’s foster kid since his parents are still alive and I don’t know much about whether you can legally adopt someone whose parents are alive and who wasn’t really removed from their custody so much as they are incapable of doing much of anything.   
> The knee stuff at the beginning of this chapter brought to you by “i’m nineteen and my knees make alarming sounds when i stand up or stretch and i’m not even particularly hard on them also my back cracks when i lie down or bend a certain way and my toes, ankles, elbows, wrists, and fingers all crack too” aka my body is already falling apart and i DON’T do the superhero landing like diego  
> also the human body is BULLSHIT and being bipedal is slowly ruining all of our bodies and life sucks.   
> Enjoy!

Duke Thomas (currently Signal, lone metahuman among the Bats and sole exception to Batman’s ‘no metas in Gotham’ rule for reasons unknown to anyone except the Bats) leaned over the edge of the warehouse, staring down at a scarred man wearing black and kneeling on the asphalt of the narrow alleyway between buildings. 

The guy had pulled off a stereotypical superhero landing, one which Duke had learned  _ not _ to do in his training because, as Bruce had warned him, it could mess up your knees for  _ life. _

Duke would prefer it if his knees worked for as long as possible, no matter how stupid of a joint knees were. 

(Honestly, a lot of things that he’d been warned were a given, like terrifying scars and getting his teeth knocked out, were things he would Rather Not have. It was probably lucky he could see a few seconds into the future, because it gave him an edge in fights and also day to day life, and he needed it. He did live in  _ Gotham, _ where it was about impossible to  _ avoid _ being caught up in Superhero/Supervillain Bullshit.)

Duke looked down from the rooftop. He’d come over here to the warehouse district after spotting the massive wormhole, and now he was staring down from a roof at a guy who apparently didn’t care about his fucking knees and who was now standing up and glancing around. 

At ground level. He didn’t notice Signal. 

Just as Duke was about to hop down to say hello and get the man back to home base, a scream sounded from somewhere nearby and the guy took off in that direction. 

Great. 

Duke followed him from above. The warehouse district was regularly full of screams, and it would probably take five or six full-time vigilantes to stop all crimes. 

Sometimes, Duke thought that what the Bats did was rather futile. 

Then he remembered that they still saved lots of people. It didn’t matter that they couldn’t save everyone, because the point was that they tried and that they saved a lot of people. 

Well, Duke had probably been about due for a crisis. Tim seemed to have them on a regular basis, though usually not about whether they were making a difference. 

(He was pretty sure the last crisis Tim had had had been about his sexuality. Again.)

Duke was also pretty sure that Bruce also had regular crises, which were usually about whether or not he was making a difference and whether or not he’d ruined the lives of all of his children by adopting and/or interacting with them. 

(Probably not. Duke figured that at least a few of them would have, without Bruce, been abandoned to the tender mercies of the Gotham foster care system, which was fairly evenly split between nice families, people in it for the paycheck, trafficking, mob shit, and Oh My God That Is Not A Nice Family. Maybe not Tim, who Duke thought maybe had some relatives somewhere out there, though if he never mentioned them and they’d never shown up, he probably would have ended up in foster care. How had his parents died again?) 

Duke was drawn out of his thoughts by the sight of the wormhole guy flinging a knife at a would-be thief. The knife pinned the thief to a telephone pole, and the man hastily tore his sleeve and fled the scene. The would-be victim seized their possessions and fled immediately, clearly an intelligent citizen of Gotham who was not planning on sticking around for whatever might happen next. Duke had spotted their eyes landing on him. 

“Hi!” Duke called down from his perch on an extremely rickety fire escape. He would probably know before it fell apart. Probably. 

The guy whipped around and stared at him, which was fair since they apparently came from a universe where the Justice League was fictional and there weren’t superheroes. Also Duke was wearing bright yellow. 

It was a cool costume. But it was also very noticeable. Sneaky, Duke was not. 

Well, sometimes. 

Since he could control shadows, kinda. 

But not usually. 

“Who are you?” the guy demanded. 

“I’m Signal.” Duke said. “I saw you come through the wormhole. I know where your, uh, siblings? I think? I know where they are.” 

Maybe he had said that wrong, because the guy tensed up and looked angry. 

(Okay, replaying what he’d just said: it did sound a tad villainous. But also, what teenager in bright yellow armor is kidnapping grown adults? Plus one angry teenager.) 

“They’re safe!” Duke said hastily, holding up a hand. “Um, my, boss? I guess? Uh, Batman-” 

“What.” the guy said flatly, eyes narrowing. 

Oh yeah. Fictional Justice League. 

“Let me explain,” Duke started. 

\---

Diego could sort of handle the whole concept of comic book characters being real and all. Sort of. 

God, but he was having a time of it lately. Dad died, Patch died, the apocalypse happend because Vanya was special and Dad was an ass, they time traveled to the 1960s, Diego got institutionalized, Lila, Vanya nearly caused the apocalypse again, The Commission, Lila, Five committed multiple murders which nearly led to all of them dying at the hands of rabid temporal assassins, Lila, time traveling back to 2019, Dad replacing them with the Sparrow Academy, the other Academy attacking, Five ripping a hole in spacetime, landing here, and.

Comic book superheroes were real here, he was in Gotham, and his siblings were with Batman. 

Sure, why not. 

His life was already so goddamn weird. 

And so goddamn complicated. 

The curse of being special. 

The Batcave was as cool as Diego had always figured it to be, though he’d only rarely read any comics, in the aftermath of getting kicked out of the police academy while trying to hold onto the idea that he could still do good. 

Nobody was in the cave, and Signal took off his helmet and said, “We’re not supposed to wear our costumes upstairs, so, uh, could you just hang on a second while I change real quick?” 

“Sure.” Diego said, glancing around the cave. There was a giant dinosaur and a giant penny. That was interesting. 

Honestly, being part of the Umbrella Academy would have been so much cooler if they’d had a secret hideout. Instead they’d had a big training gym and a lot of expensive equipment that they only used during private training sessions. 

Diego leaned back a bit as bats flew overhead. Huh. 

Signal returned, now in regular clothes, and led Diego up the metal stairs, through a grandfather clock, and into a study, then down the stairs to a breakfast room where a bunch of people who were probably Batman and his team were sitting, along with his siblings. 

And Diego only had eyes for his family. They looked mostly okay. Except for Five. 

Five looked terrible. Tired and oddly upset. Oh, it was hard to see, even as someone who had grown up with Five, but he was upset. 

“Diego!” Klaus exclaimed. He was still wearing that stupid cowboy hat, and he marched over to hug Diego, who sighed and patted Klaus’ back. 

They were together again. All six living siblings. 

Safe. 

For now.

\---

Meanwhile, deep inside the farthest reaches of the space between universes, something moved. 

And a monster awoke once more. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Calling it now, I can’t stick the daily updates. Obviously, since it's been three days. I’ll update as often as I can, and the next chapter is already written along with part of Chapter Eight, and I’ve got Chapter Nine somewhat planned out, too. But don’t expect daily updates anymore. College is Kicking My Ass in infrequent bursts because I am a procrastinator.   
> English is wild, dude, in the first part of the chapter I used the word “had” three times in a row and it MADE SENSE  
> Also, I gave tim an ongoing sexuality crisis because why not, I’ve been having one too.   
> Do people mind the long author’s notes? Because I do tend to write very long notes.   
> Come find me on tumblr @cassandra-starflower!


	7. The Girl

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What is happening in the world the Hargreeves left behind?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And now, we move away from the DC universe. Last chapter is the last we’ll see of the Academy in the DC universe until chapter ten as we visit the universe left behind.   
> Worldbuilding!   
> Lots of religious type stuff in this chapter, since it’s from the POV of the TUA God. Except I’m very not Christian and very not any kind of religious, so.   
> TUA God is referred to as The Girl. I know at least one of you hasn’t seen TUA, so just know that in TUA, Klaus dies and meets God, who is in the form of a young girl riding a bicycle.   
> TUA Devil, who hasn’t actually appeared at any points in canon, is called the Child here.

There were many forces in the multiverse that protected, guided, and controlled the world. The Girl was one of them. 

She was what you might call a god. A force of nature, a being older than time itself, she had existed for a very, very long time, in various forms. Her favorite was that of a young girl, and she stayed in what most called Heaven and what she called the Above, a bicycle under her feet, in a land of black and white and gray. 

Her counterpart, down below the Earth, was known as the Child, and controlled what most called Hell but what they called the Below, punishing those who did terrible things. This land was also a land of black and white and gray, and the Child rarely left it except to punish those who absolutely needed it. 

They did occasionally come up to the Above to chat with the Girl. Unlike what some might believe, the two beings did not hate each other. They were not, really, much analogous to the Christian God and Satan. They had come into being together, they lived together, and if the two ever ceased to exist, they would do that together too. 

The Girl often did not pay attention to the world. She was, after all, quite old, and a bit bored if she were to be entirely honest. Humanity kept simultaneously disappointing and pleasing her. The Child went up there more often, but even that was rare. 

The Forty-Three were the Girl’s attempt at correcting many of the wrongs down there. She had  _ naively _ assumed that they would grow up happy, uncover their abilities, and save people. A set of messiah figures, like Christ. 

(At least one of them, who had been born in a remote village in a remote part of the world where they had little interaction with the rest of the world, was indeed considered a miracle and messiah figure, in no small part due to her power - her ability to heal any wound and any sickness was certainly miracle-esque. She was worshipped as an avatar of Nature, last the Girl had checked, and quite happy. At least  _ some _ of her children were.)

And then Reginald Hargreeves had stepped in and stolen seven of them. All seven had grown up unhappy, Number Five had jumped into an apocalypse… 

That was the first time the Girl had seen what Reginald’s interference had wrought, through her child’s eyes. 

It was… not good. Poor Vanya, who had been meant to do great and  _ good _ things, and now thanks to Reginald her greatest legacy was quite literally ending the world, slaughtering billions. How the Commission had come to the conclusion that the Girl wanted this, she didn’t know. Vanya’s powers drained energy from other sources quite easily, though usually, as it was through sound, it was harmless, just taking what her brain got. But her powers easily turned parasitic, and in that final burst of violence she had, in the original apocalypse, sucked the life out of the world. Nothing was ever going to grow there again- it was a miracle that Number Five, thanks to the natural resilience all of her children were gifted with, had survived. 

Then, in the regular timeline, Ben had died, and the rest had scattered, cynical and worn down in most cases, and still under Reginald’s thrall in one case. 

Klaus Hargreeves was, to be perfectly honest, not her favorite person. Mostly because when she looked at him, she saw the tatters of her plan. It was disappointing. 

She didn’t hate him, though. She didn’t hate any of them, which was why, when the timeline drastically changed, she only sighed and massaged her temples. Somehow the lack of a true corporeal form did not prevent headaches. 

When she saw the new timeline, this time through the eyes of five of her  _ other _ children (along with Ben again), she thunked her forehead against the handlebars of her bicycle. 

Of course Reginald was behind the drastic changes to the timeline. And possibly some of the Commission’s actions. 

She had not, contrary to the popular belief among those scant few agents aware of her existence, gifted the Commission with the briefcases and the knowledge needed. No, humans were a miracle all of their own, and they made things beyond belief. 

(Still.  _ Free will _ was a thing and she would never take it away from anyone. Sure, there were certain things that were bound to happen, but if they changed thanks to some human decision, she wasn’t going to stop them. Though the Umbrella Academy accidentally destroying their timeline was rather sad,  _ she _ wasn’t going to do anything about it. Unless she really needed to.) 

She allowed the Commission to continue to exist until they picked up Number Five. Then she saw them through his eyes and decided that if he decided to destroy them, she would not lift a single finger to help them. 

The new timeline was a disaster and a half, and no sooner had she wondered if her guidance might be necessary then Number Five, in his absolute desperation to protect his siblings, tore a hole in the fabric of spacetime. 

It was, perhaps, a bit of a  _ problem _ that she had given them the gifts they had. Even Luther with his simple superstrength was far more powerful than anybody might give him credit, and honestly, it may have been a bit much, basically making them near gods. At least she had made sure they could only access  _ that _ level of power in the sort of situation that Number Five was currently in. 

He’d still gone, perhaps, just a bit,  _ overboard. _

The point was, the way Number Five had drawn on his powers while linked to his siblings (such a close bond, like septuplets, that there was a empathetic link between them that they had never discovered), this desperate pull of everything that he had, this scream of power and rage and every ounce of everything, had caused a wee bit of an apocalypse over in the Girl’s universe of choice. 

In other words, spacetime was falling apart and it was taking quite a bit of the Girl’s power to hold this universe together. 

And now, the Hargreeves were in another universe. A universe in which there were quite a few powerful beings already. 

The Girl sighed heavily and changed gears on her bicycle, ready to head to the Below to convene with the Child (and hopefully get some help keeping this universe in one piece). 

What a disaster. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’ve already got the next three chapters written, so Monday will be Chapter Eight and Tuesday will be Chapter Nine, then Wednesday will be Chapter Ten. I’m not going to force it, so we’ll see. I did write like three chapters yesterday, so.   
> Not gonna force things, if I need a break I’ll take a break.   
> Because, wow, I really don’t want to burn out on this story! I don’t know if you guys are mostly new or people who’ve read my stuff before, but I have a tendency to abandon things after the first chapter or two, and being able to post this much this fast is a miracle.   
> Come find me on tumblr @cassandra-starflower!   
> Oh, and I’d like to add, if you want DC content, my sideblog for the Batfam is @timdrakeisbaby and if you want TUA content, my sideblog is @numberfivetheboy.   
> You can probably tell who my favorites are.   
> I do need to mention that while I absolutely welcome people coming to my blog, following me, saying hi, any of that (please do im so lonely), there are Boundaries, by which I mean if you write incest fic for Cinderella please for the love of God do not ask to bounce ideas for your next fic off of me I will not know what to say and just straight up not respond. I wrote ONE cinderella fic please I’m not actually into writing for disney and i hate incest, even stepparent/stepchild like that’s still incest dude please no.   
> (Yes this is a callout for one specific person who i'm pretty sure isn’t reading this story someone help idk what to do)


	8. Reginald Hargreeves

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What’s happening with the Sparrows?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter takes place at the same time as the earlier chapters, covering what happened with Reginald and the Sparrows from the arrival of the Umbrella Academy and through the aftermath of Five’s escape.   
> Also, I fucking hate reginald, fuck him.

Reginald Hargreeves was not an easy man to surprise. 

The reappearance of the six people from the lounge all those years ago was something he had anticipated for years, and what he knew of their powers, he trained his Sparrows to counter. 

The Sparrow Academy was a strong and mighty group, and they worked efficiently together. They had conflicts, of course, but feared Reginald too much to allow these conflicts to become detrimental to the mission. 

Their powers were great and they were skilled with them, and Reginald had been certain that it would be enough to contain the others. 

It had not. 

The fact that the boy had managed to escape his Sparrows despite Number Seven’s effective use of fear and cold was unexpected. The fact that the boy had taken the others with him was even more unexpected. 

The fact that this act had torn a breach in the fabric of reality was unpleasant, and of course Reginald was being expected to deal with it. 

The cold-faced city official said, “It’s your mess, Mr. Hargreeves. We have footage from a store down the street. Your people were chasing a group of fleeing civilians, one of whom clearly had powers, and essentially forced them into escaping that way. And we’ve got no abilities to counter it or contain it in any way. You will handle it.” 

Reginald seethed. His Sparrows, sensing his mood, scattered, even faithful (desperate) Number Two. 

He should perhaps have expected that they would be more powerful than they had shown. His Sparrow Academy was far more powerful than he had anticipated seeing the abilities showcased by the other group, and he should have expected that the other group, who clearly did not like or trust him, would have held back. 

But the fact that the boy, who had spoken of time traveling and struggling with his powers, had managed to rend a hole in space, was… surprising. 

Perhaps he had been incorrect about the boy’s appetite being larger than his power. Perhaps the issue lay more in his appetite being larger than his skill. 

That aside, he needed to figure out a way to contain the breach. Unfortunately, none of his Sparrows possessed the type of powers necessary to do so. Not even Number Seven, whose origin was a mystery even to Reginald and who was the most likely of all of them to be able to contain such a breach. 

It was frustrating. Reginald had looked into all manner of machinery that could possibly contain it, and there was simply nothing. 

And the breach was expanding at an alarming rate. Already it had begun to swallow the street near the Academy. 

It was almost magnetic. And now, you could see through it, into a vast emptiness. 

There was just  _ nothing _ on the other side of it. Reginald, who had survived a great many things, was loath to admit ever being  _ afraid, _ but looking into that immense nothingness, he was afraid. 

Then more breaches began to appear, all over the world, swallowing up city blocks and looming in their emptiness. It was as though the boy had broken something vital in his desperation to save himself and the others. 

Reginald’s Sparrows turned to him for guidance. He had none to give. All they could do was evacuate entire city blocks, in London, in Dallas, in Paris, in Rome, in Johannesburg, in all the great population centers across the globe. The breaches seemed to be centered on where the most life was. 

No one had yet passed through them. 

Reginald crafted a space suit with a tether and sent Number Two through the breach. With the tentacled monsters inside of him, he was the best bet to survive. 

Number Two paused at the edge of the breach, the last place the road was, the edges of rippling blue at his feet. 

He turned back to look at Reginald. 

Reginald nodded. 

Number Two stepped forward, into the emptiness. 

The edges of the breach snapped together and the entire thing vanished. 

The end of a tether fell to the asphalt road. 

And Reginald stood there, filled with shock. 

\---

The rest of the Sparrows were quite unhappy with him now, and Reginald put them all into the Minerva and headed for the next breach, telling them that perhaps they could find Number Two inside another breach. 

It was possible. 

None of the rest of the breaches had closed, after all. 

And there was nothing inside every breach. Reginald was not so foolish as to send any more of his Sparrows into any of the other breaches - it would be a waste. 

Not that that seemed to have occurred to them. They were desperate to find their brother. 

Reginald tsked to himself and continued to investigate the possibility of a machine. If necessary, he would take some of the villains his Sparrows had fought from Hotel Oblivion and put those villains through the breaches. It could work to close them. 

Hmm. Human sacrifice. An unpleasant proposition, admittedly, but he had few options. 

He could not conceive of any machine that could possibly stop the advancing breaches. 

He sent the Sparrows home and went to Hotel Oblivion. 

\---

Reginald now stood beside a breach, as close as he dared get. A villain stood with manacled hands and feet beside him, trembling in fear. 

“Go.” he ordered, pointing into the breach. “If you survive, I will release you from your sentence.” 

The villain hesitated, then shuffled towards the breach. Pathetic. 

The villain paused at the edge, glanced back towards Reginald, then stepped over the edge. 

The breach did not close. The villain just disappeared. 

Well. 

That was not good. 

How had Number Two entering a breach caused it to close? Was it his powers? The fact that the breach had been the first? 

There had been looks of recognition on every one of the interlopers’ faces when they laid eyes on Number Two. There had been six of them, though Reginald would have certainly gone for seven. They had spoken and behaved as though there had been another one, once. 

Had the breach, imbued with the power of the boy, simply assumed that Number Two was one of the other Academy? 

Reginald frowned at the open breach. There was much to do, still, to preserve this world. 

To prevent the end of the world. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I haven’t read the Hotel Oblivion comics, though I’ve read Apocalypse Suite and Dallas.   
> Special guest next chapter :)   
> Come find me on tumblr @cassandra-starflower!   
> For The Umbrella Academy: @numberfivetheboy  
> For DC/Batfam: @timdrakeisbaby


	9. Ben

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> :) :) :) :) :)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When do I choose to update if I have a chapter prepared? Great question! Whenever I remember to. Usually after breakfast.   
> Shorter and stylized chapter today. I've got the next chapter done and I'm working on Chapter Eleven.

Ben Hargreeves was dead. 

He had been dead for seventeen long years, having died at only seventeen years old. 

His death had shattered his family, and only Klaus had been unaffected, thanks to his ability to see ghosts and the fact that Klaus had summoned Ben. 

He had spent all those seventeen years bound to Klaus, and then- 

When Ben had gone to help Vanya, he had known there was no coming back from it. She was so powerful, all those agents dead in the hallway outside, Allison and Diego and Klaus falling bloody to the floor, flung away from her. 

She had been at the epicenter of death, pulsing outward in waves, and he had been unaffected. 

But he had known that possessing her, searching for her inside her own mind, trying to save her. 

He had known that would kill him the rest of the way. 

He had mostly come to terms with leaving his siblings behind. 

Mostly. 

He had gotten a hug from Diego and Vanya before going, so it was okay with him, right? He just wanted them to be safe and okay. 

His ghost had faded out, falling into nothing in Vanya’s arms, caught inside her soul for a little while before… 

He had been nonexistent for a long while after that. 

He existed now, in the nothing. Senses clouded by a void. He couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think-

He wasn’t sure where he was. All he knew was that it was cold, and dark, and empty, and he wanted  _ out out out. _

**Scream.**

The Horror screamed inside him and around him, tentacles brushing his skin, reaching outward and upward and everywhere, and he stretched out his hands and screamed with it. 

Screaming like he could do nothing else, because what else was there for him to do? He was trapped trapped trapped, and he hated it, hated it so much, he wanted  _ out _ now, at this very instant- 

**Reach.**

Pain, blistering pain that he had not felt since he had died bloody and screaming just like he was now, throat raw, lungs heaving.

He had lungs, and a throat, and he could feel pain. 

**Scream.**

He screamed louder. 

_ He left me-  _

The faces of his siblings flashed before his eyes- Luther, Diego, Allison, Klaus, Five, Vanya. 

_ Marcus, Fei, Alphonso, Sloane, Jayme, Christopher. _

**You can do it.**

The Horror’s screams grew louder and louder until it was all he could hear, his own screams pathetic beside the immense rumbling and shrieking of the eldritch entity inside him, the sound of an ancient being that was furious, the sound of a child that had lost everything, the sound of a man who had only grown up because he was a ghost tied to his brother, aging alongside him. 

**Scream.** __

The empty  _ tore.  _

And Ben Hargreeves, the Horror, stumbled out into the wilderness, seventeen years old and clawing at the air. 

There was pain all through him. He stood there on the dirt and gasped for breath, throat still raw and blistered. 

He was. 

He was breathing. 

He was alive! 

_ Why wouldn’t I be? _

Ben patted his chest, his stomach, felt the Horror rumbling silently inside him, and reached for his hood, tugging it up over his head. 

Alive, alive, alive. 

He needed, he needed, he needed- 

His siblings! 

Where were they? Were they okay? Alive? Safe? 

_ Please, where are they? I left them- he left me- am I- _

Ben crumpled to his knees, pain still throbbing in his skin, his veins, his organs, his bones. 

He dug his fingers into the dirt and breathed, breathed, breathed. He could smell the dirt. Feel it crumble around his fingers. He was alive. 

He had missed this so much. Possessing Klaus had been all too brief, and his senses clouded by the alcohol still in Klaus’ system, and now, now he was in his own body and he was solid and real and alive. 

Where was he? 

And how was he alive? 

Ben didn’t know and he almost didn’t care, he just wanted his family, he wanted to find them and be with them again, all seven of them together and alive and safe. 

Where had he been? What was that dark empty? 

He didn’t know, he didn’t care, he didn’t- 

**Scream.**

He was alone alone alone, and he hated it, with a sudden viciousness because he hadn’t be alone like this a day in his life, trapped with his brothers and sisters at the Academy, bound to Klaus for years, 

He breathed in, lungs aching as he inhaled as his battered lungs  _ worked _ and he screamed. 

The birds scattered above him. 

The Horror screamed inside him. 

**Scream.**

He tasted blood. His throat tore open from the violence of the scream, again and again, and he remembered the pain, his body torn open, the blood sprayed on the walls,  _ his  _ blood sprayed on the walls on his siblings faces on the ceiling dripping down Luther’s face pooling on the floor and nothing nothing nothing. 

_ No, that’s wrong. That never happened, no- _

Ben breathed, shaky, ragged, blood trickling down his chin, spat on the dirt, gripping the ground with trembling hands. 

He was  _ alive. _

**Breathe now. Don’t stop.**

He breathed, in, out, in, out, in, out. Alive, breathing, feeling. 

The pain began to fade now, slowly, until he was left lying in the dirt with an ache in his bones and a throb in his veins and nothing else. 

**Breathe. Keep breathing.**

Ben Hargreeves lay in the dirt, eyes on the sky, fingers digging into the ground, and breathed. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I mean, I wasn’t just gonna leave Ben dead.  
> Also, yes, it’s baby Ben, because he didn’t actually grow up, so despite basically fusing with Sparrow Ben, he’s still the Ben we all know and love, so he’s a teenager again.   
> Google Docs hated this chapter, specifically the grammar check function, since there were so many repeated words and weird grammar things going on.   
> Come find me on tumblr @cassandra-starflower!   
> For The Umbrella Academy: @numberfivetheboy  
> For DC/Batfam: @timdrakeisbaby


	10. Five, The Child, and Bruce

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Five tries (and fails) to nap, we visit the Girl’s counterpart, and Bruce (and his kids) get an explanation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’d like to note that Five claims in the first part of this chapter that he would be much better than any of his siblings at explaining Them and the apocalypse and all of that.   
> He is absolutely one-hundred-percent wrong. That boy is SHIT at explaining things. See: how much he completely failed at explaining the apocalypse to his siblings, his summary of events for Vanya, every time he ever tries to explain anything at all, etc.

Five was still exhausted. Allison had made him go nap again, pointing out that if he didn’t sleep, he’d just stay drained. 

He wasn’t sure he could fix this. 

He was sure he couldn’t fix this. 

He had torn his way through universes and dragged his siblings with him and now he felt like a leaky bottle, every bit of power he accumulated seeping away as soon as he tried to use it. 

He just had to  _ not. _ Which was easier said than done, since he had been jumping everywhere from the moment his powers had manifested. 

Five squeezed his eyes shut and pulled a pillow over his face. It was impossible to turn his brain off, to make himself not think and worry and plan. 

God _ dammit. _

He pulled the pillow off of his face. The butler had gotten them all clean clothes, which Five had been very grateful for seeing as he’d been wearing that uniform for over a week. 

He wasn’t used to clothes that weren’t, well. 

The uniform. The blue pajamas that had hard strips of cloth around the cuffs. The green training clothes. The rags he had cobbled together out of his uniform and whatever scraps he could find in the apocalypse. The tailored suit he’d worn at the Commission. 

Now he was wearing soft sweats and he’d never worn sweatpants a single day in his life. 

It was a strange experience. 

Somewhere downstairs, his dumbass siblings were explaining things more thoroughly. If he was down there, he was sure he’d do a much better job. 

Five sighed and resisted the urge to roll over. His injuries would make it that much harder to go to sleep. 

Goddammit. 

\---

It was just like the Girl to make a mess and expect their help cleaning it up. 

To be fair, it was not entirely her fault. Reginald Hargreeves had been bound for the Below for a long time, and the Child frankly couldn’t wait to get their hands on that man and make him pay for every single migraine that both the Girl and the Child had suffered these last few decades. 

But still. The Forty-Three had been the Girl’s idea, a recreation of the Christian Christ. Not meant to be martyrs, not like how Reginald seemed prepared to treat them, but. 

The Child knew that this was not entirely the Girl’s fault, but that wasn’t going to stop them from blaming her anyway. The time travel disaster, the changed timeline, it was all such a mess. 

Before the timeline had changed, the Child had been having a lot of fun torturing Reginald in the Below. Then the timeline changed, and suddenly Reginald was alive again, and now. 

Well. 

Now everything was a mess, the world was falling apart, and it was taking both the Child and the Girl to hold it together. Hopefully, someone would fix it. And by  _ someone, _ the Child absolutely meant their resident apocalypse-averters. 

What else were they supposed to do? Rely on  _ Reginald Hargreeves? _

Hah. As if. 

Things really were absolutely going to shit. 

\---

Bruce rubbed his temples. The remaining Hargreeves siblings were sitting in the living room with Bruce and his children, ready for an actual conversation about how they’d ended up here. 

Bruce already had a headache. 

“Basically,” Allison said, from where she was crammed onto the couch with all but Luther. Luther had taken a seat on the floor. 

“Basically,” Klaus interrupted, “we were outrunning our shitty father’s new kids and really had nowhere to go, so Five accidentally transported us here.” 

“New kids?” Bruce asked, raising an eyebrow. 

“Shitty father?” Jason added. 

“Okay.” Allison took a deep breath, glaring at her siblings. “As the only person who’s ever  _ actually had to explain this stuff, _ will you all shut up and let me talk?” 

“Five’s explained it,” Vanya volunteered. “Back when I had amnesia.” 

“Five’s not here right now, he’s napping.” Diego muttered. 

Vanya shrugged. “I guess it wasn’t a very good explanation, anyway.” 

Allison pointedly cleared her throat. Everyone fell silent. 

“Okay.” Allison said. “We were adopted by a millionaire named Reginald Hargreeves when we were babies, because of the circumstances of our births, which we don’t actually know much about but apparently it was unique enough to catch his attention, and were raised by him, sort of.” 

“He was pretty hands-off,” Klaus interjected. “We were mostly raised by Mom and Pogo.” 

“Your mom?” Dick asked curiously. 

“Mom’s a robot that Dad built to take care of us.” Luther explained.    
“A robot who looks almost identical to his ex-girlfriend.” Diego muttered, which was alarming. 

“Who’s Pogo?” Tim asked. 

“Dad’s chimpanzee butler. Who can talk and stuff.” Klaus replied. “He’s a pretty sharp dresser.”

“What the heck.” Tim mumbled. 

“Anyway!” Allison said. “We started showing our powers when we were toddlers, so Dad started training us to be his own personal superhero team and to stop the apocalypse.” 

“Which we failed at.” Klaus remarked. 

“Klaus!” Allison hissed. 

Bruce raised an eyebrow again. 

“Anyway,” Allison went on. “We started as superheroes when we were twelve, and then about ten months later Five ran away and accidentally got stuck in the distant future, where he apparently found out about the end of the world.” 

“That doesn’t sound… fun.” Stephanie said. 

“After Five ran away, we kept being superheroes, until we were seventeen.” Allison continued, and faltered. 

“We had another brother.” Diego contributed quietly. “Ben. He’s dead.” 

“Oh, shit, I’m sorry.” Dick said, looking surprised. 

“I noticed at least two of you stutter over how many of you there were.” Bruce said quietly. 

Allison just nodded. “We split up after that, went our own ways. Luther stuck around with Dad. We stayed pretty much split up until Dad died, then we all went home and Five showed up and we had to deal with the apocalypse.” 

“It wasn’t fun.” Klaus said. “And we very much did not succeed.” 

Vanya winced. Bruce wondered if she had been responsible for some portion of whatever plan they’d had and had failed at it. 

“So Five time traveled with us, in an attempt to fix things,” Allison explained, “except we landed in the sixties and nearly caused a nuclear holocaust. So.” 

Klaus started laughing, tipping sideways onto Vanya’s lap, before wheezing “We are  _ excellent _ at breaking things!”

“Then we met with Dad, pissed him off,” Diego said, “stopped the end of the world, got ahold of an actual time machine, and time traveled back to 2019, and then found out that we’d pissed Dad off so much that he adopted five other people who weren’t us, Ben, and a floating green cube.”

Bruce’s brain stuttered to a halt. 

“A cube?” Tim asked, practically hanging over the edge of his armchair. Stephanie, in the same armchair, sat up straighter. Cass, also in the same armchair, draped herself over Tim’s back, wide-eyed. 

“A cube.” Diego confirmed, looking disgruntled. 

“Like an actual, geometrical,  _ cube _ ?” 

“Well, given that it was flying after us and trying to make us feel some form of existential dread stronger than the constant state of existential dread that all of us have been living in for our entire lives, I didn’t exactly get a good look at it.” 

“It was a cube.” Vanya interjected. “You know. Square. But three dimensional.” 

“Yes thanks Vanya.” Diego replied, looking like he might roll his eyes. 

“What the fuck.” Jason muttered. 

“Yep, that’s our lives.” Klaus sighed. “So damn weird.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Seating arrangement: Bruce is sitting on his own in an armchair. Dick is in a different armchair, and Damian is perched on the arm of the chair like a little gargoyle. Jason is standing. Tim, Cass, and Steph are sharing a chair, because they have no sense of personal space when it comes to each other. Duke is standing. The couch is crammed with Hargreeves and Luther is on the floor next to it.   
> Has anybody noticed that no one from the TUAverse has said fuck yet? That’s because the show only uses one ‘fuck’ per season, so I’m saving it. The Bats can say fuck whenever they want, because it doesn’t matter and they say it all the time, I think. Except Alfred has a no-swearing policy, which is why Tim said heck instead of fuck.   
> Would anybody want, like, bonus content? Because there’s an entire conversation between the Girl and the Child that I cut from this chapter because of plot reasons and the fact that it was full of spoilers. So like, once i get further into the story, would anybody want to see that conversation? Or just bonus content in general? I could make a series for this in a while and post some stuff I cut from the main story. Alternate scenes, bonus scenes, stuff like that. Let me know!   
> Come find me on tumblr @cassandra-starflower!   
> For The Umbrella Academy: @numberfivetheboy  
> For DC/Batfam: @timdrakeisbaby


	11. Ben, Five, Damian

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ben finds out he’s in the DC universe. Five works on equations. Damian gives a (reluctant) tour. And we have a new guest to the DC Universe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I got distracted and added a one-shot to my sister and I’s extremely AU Harry Potter fic series, oops.  
> Also, college.  
> Surprise POV at the end of the chapter!

Eventually, Ben had to get up. He couldn’t just lie in the dirt all day, after all. He needed to find his siblings. 

Find them and figure out what the hell was going on here, where he was, what had happened… 

There was so much he had clearly missed. He had no idea how he’d gotten here, how he was alive. 

He had no idea where _here_ was. 

Ben stumbled through the trees, looking for a road or landmark. 

Nothing. 

He kept walking. The Horror rumbled inside him. 

It was a long time before he found a road and stumbled out onto the edge. 

A car zoomed past. Ben blinked. 

Well, he needed to find somewhere. Someplace with a map, maybe, so he could figure out where the hell he was. 

He set off down the side of the road. He was going to be walking for a while. 

\---

Five scribbled in his notebook, eyes narrowed. He was _resting,_ just not… actually sleeping. Sleep was a near impossibility right now, and he had trained himself out of sleeping for long periods of time, anyway. 

Equation after equation scrawled across the pages as Five considered variables and numbers. 

There was a tap at the door. Five looked up with narrowed eyes. 

“Come in.” he called. The door opened and one of the people here peered in. Tim, Five thought his name was. 

“Thought you were supposed to be sleeping?” Tim asked.   
Five narrowed his eyes again. “I have more important things to do.” 

“Equations?” 

Five hesitated, then decided _to hell with it_ and shrugged. “I’m trying to anticipate what my powers may have caused. There were likely other effects aside from just transporting my siblings and I here. I didn’t have a chance to work out the equations ahead of time.” 

“Your powers need math?” Tim asked, moving closer. 

“The time travel does. As does, presumably, the dimension travel. I would prefer to figure out what I may have done _before_ it catches up to us.” 

“Maybe I can help?” Tim offered. “Sometimes it helps just to have someone to talk things through with.” 

Five considered this for a moment, then mentally shrugged and said, “Fine.” 

Tim briefly smiled and dropped into the desk chair, rolling it over to the side of the bed. “Okay, so how do the equations work?” 

\---

Damian had been roped into giving the guests (aside from Five) a tour of the Manor. He was pretty sure his father was trying to distract him, but oh well. He could fume about it later in the privacy of his bedroom. 

And then Vanya spotted his violin and let out a little surprised sound. 

“Someone here plays the violin?” she asked him, with a wistful little smile. 

“I do.” he asserted with a nod. “You play?” 

“I haven’t since…” she trailed off. Hesitated. “Not since the apocalypse.” 

Allison placed a hand on Vanya’s shoulder. The brothers all glanced away awkwardly. 

“Are you any good?” Damian probed, narrowing his eyes. The reactions were odd. 

“I-” Vanya hesitated. 

“Aw, c’mon Vanya.” Klaus said. “You did make first chair! And play a very impactful solo.” 

Vanya visibly winced. “I mean. I’ve been playing since I was twelve.” 

Damian, who had been playing since he was eight, and who was currently twelve, nodded. Well, he wasn’t going to just hand his violin over to her, but it would be interesting to see how good she was. 

“It might be dangerous.” Luther said. “I mean, last time you played…” 

Vanya frowned at him. “I didn’t have good control.” 

“You still don’t.” Diego muttered. 

“Probably not a good idea just yet.” Allison offered, squeezing her sister’s shoulder. 

“You’re right.” Vanya said, sighing. 

“What’s next on the tour?” Allison asked Damian, who had watched the exchange with a frown. 

There was definitely something they weren’t telling the Bats. 

Damian shook himself and said, “The library, I suppose.” 

\---

It was hours before Ben found civilization, in the form of a rest stop. 

He wandered into the main building, glancing around. There were maps for Indiana. He had never been to Indiana before. 

Ben walked over to the newspaper rack, wondering if he could find the date and see how much time had passed, maybe. 

There was a date, in the corner of the top newspaper, and the year was apparently 2021. He really needed to find his siblings. 

Then his eyes flicked downward from the date. 

The newspaper headline proclaimed, “JUSTICE LEAGUE SAVES THE DAY” in massive letters. 

Ben froze. 

Oh, _shit_ that was _not_ good. 

He _really, really_ needed to find his siblings. 

Because of _course_ he’d heard of the Justice League. Klaus liked the comics, or at least some of them, and once Ben had snuck into a movie theater (was it really sneaking if he was a ghost?) and watched a movie about them. 

There had been lots of explosions. That seemed to be the norm for superhero movies. _Ben_ had never caused an explosion, though Klaus had once. And Allison. And Vanya, but that hadn’t been a superhero thing, really. 

(And she’d blown up the entire _moon_ and ended the world, so.)

Okay. 

So. 

Ben was in a fictional universe, and he really, really, really hoped his siblings were here too, because this was _bad_ and he needed to find them _yesterday._

\---

Lila hadn’t exactly been planning on wandering into a fictional universe, but shit happened. Shit especially happened when the Hargreeves were involved, apparently, because holy shit. 

Time itself was beginning to unravel. 

That was… not good. 

Worse was the breaches in spacetime opening up all over the place. And by all over the place, she meant all over the place, including in ancient times. 

In unrelated news, the Ancient Romans really did not like massive breaches in spacetime and had already lost an entire legion to one. You’d think something like, oh, _not charging the massive hole in reality_ would be common sense, but apparently not. 

(There _had_ once been an emperor who had declared war on the sea god Neptune and had his armies stab the ocean, so. That was a thing.)

Lila had therefore found a breach and wandered through it. She was not feeling entirely stable, upset about her mother’s lies, upset about her parents, upset about everything. 

She also had little self-preservation, and was happy to explore whatever-the-fuck was on the other side of the breach. 

It was, apparently, nothing. 

And she did not like that. 

It took some indeterminate length of time, a lot of screaming, and creative use of Vanya and Five’s powers for Lila to escape, and she did not land in her home universe. 

She wasn’t entirely sure where she was until she spotted Superman on the news. 

Five minutes of creative and elaborate cursing later, she decided to find the goddamn Hargreeves and figure out what the goddamn hell was going on here. 

Because whatever it was, it was _definitely their fault._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No, I wasn’t originally planning on bringing Lila in, but oh well.  
> The plot thickenens.  
> I know a lot of people want Damian and Five to bond, and they will (eventually), but first it’s Tim’s turn! Because Tim is both good at math and good at playing the rubber duck.  
> Also, Damian plays violin and I remembered that last night in the middle of watching a Lindsey Stirling video (and procrastinating on my Latin translations) and instantly went ‘VANYA AND DAMIAN BOND OVER VIOLIN’ and then remembered that last time Vanya played she ended the world so.  
> In a couple of chapters, maybe Vanya will try playing again. But for now, she (and her siblings)’s kinda traumatized.  
> EDIT: Now a series! I'll post extras like Alternate POVs and little snippets that got cut out in there.   
> Come find me on tumblr @cassandra-starflower!  
> For The Umbrella Academy: @numberfivetheboy  
> For DC/Batfam: @timdrakeisbaby


	12. Allison, Jason, Vanya, and Dick

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Allison checks in on Five, Jason and Klaus chat, and Vanya bonds with Cass. Meanwhile, Dick hears a news report.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SHADOW AND BONE SHADOW AND BONE THE TRAILER’S OUT AND I’M DYING!  
> It’s an adaptation of a series I like, or at least half of the adaptation is for the series I like. It looks really good! I was worried.   
> Anyway it got posted on Friday so on top of a big project and some little stuff I had, I did not post a chapter.   
> In other news, I made a series for this fic! Other things that will be posted in the series: Alternate POVs for different scenes in the fic, short snippets of things I had to cut out for Plot Reasons, and little side stories.   
> I’ve already posted the first two of these, which are called Lennie and Emma and which are Alternate POVs from Chapters Six and Five. I have several more short snippets built up, so when I have days where I won’t be able to update the fic due to not having a chapter done, I’ll post a snippet. Just so you all know I’m not dead or anything.

Allison had been having a very long week, between the new apocalypse and reuniting with her siblings and (reluctantly) leaving her husband and ending up in a new universe and all. 

It was frustrating to know that there was pretty much nothing she could do to help Five except make sure he rested, which she was determined to do. 

(If she had to  _ mother _ her siblings in order to keep them safe and well she would.)

So when she opened the door to the guest room Five was  _ supposed _ to be sleeping in and found him decidedly not sleeping and instead scribbling equations in a notebook and tearing out pages for Tim Drake to look over, she sighed. 

Both of them immediately looked up and Five preemptively shut down any of her arguments and snapped, “I can’t sleep, so I’m being productive  _ and resting.” _

Allison raised an eyebrow. “Resting?” 

“I’m not moving any part of my body except my arms and my mouth.” 

Well… that did technically count as resting. Compared to other things he could and probably would do if she banned whatever it was he was doing in his notebook.

“So, what are you doing?” 

Five sighed. “I didn’t do any equations before bringing us here, obviously, and I need to figure out what the effects are. I mean, we got separated, but only by a few hours and only within one country. Last time I time traveled us, we were separated by months or years. When I time traveled to Dad’s funeral, I accidentally regressed in physical age.” 

Tim gave Five a startled look and Allison abruptly recalled that they’d never explained that Five was an old man in a child’s body. 

Oops. 

“Regressed?” Tim asked. 

“I made an error in the equations and there were side effects.” Five said, waving it off. “Technically speaking, I am almost sixty years old.” 

Tim raised his eyebrows. “That… makes a little too much sense.” 

\---

Jason was poking around in the guest wing, since he’d only rarely had any reason to be in here and felt curious, when he came across Klaus Hargreeves, who was wandering around looking twitchy in a way that Jason really didn’t like. 

“Oh, hi…” Klaus said, trailing off in a way that seemed to indicate that he didn’t remember Jason’s name. Jason was not particularly inclined to help. 

“Whatcha doing?” Jason asked, leaning against the wall. 

“Uh, to be totally honest,” Klaus started babbling, “I think I’m craving alcohol. But I  _ really _ probably shouldn’t have any… kinda fell off the bandwagon when Dave punched me in the face in a big way.” 

“So you’re an alcoholic?” 

Klaus giggled nervously. “Addict. Been clean for a couple years. But you know, whatever I could get my hands on, shut out the ghosts.” 

Jason nodded, spine stiffening, trying very hard not to think of his mom wasting away. He’d thought Klaus had the, well,  _ look _ of an ex-junkie. 

The skinniness and twitchiness. Plus the track marks that were visible now that he’d taken his coat off. 

Underneath his coat, he was apparently wearing a crop top. 

“Well.” Klaus said, high-pitched. “I guess I should go, nap or something, instead of just standing around.  _ Maybe _ I’ll dream of Dave, since God kicked me out of the afterlife before I could see him. And now I’ll  _ never _ see him again, probably.” At the last sentence, Klaus rather dramatically flung his hand to his forehead and leaned back. 

“What.” Jason said flatly. 

Klaus jumped, dropping his hand. “Oh, yeah, I died once. Cracked my head pretty hard at a rave when I was trying to keep Luther from dying after Luther went off the deep end after he found out that Dad sent him to the moon for no reason. Think I broke my neck and went straight up to Heaven.” He paused, glancing at Jason. “Why?” 

“Well,” Jason drawled, “it’s not exactly normal to die and come back. I mean, I have, and same with Damian, but it isn’t something that happens to everybody.” 

Klaus blinked. “Um. No, I guess not. God didn’t like me much, so…” 

Jason raised an eyebrow. He had never met whatever god there might be in charge of this world or whatever, so he had no idea whether they (if they existed) liked him or not. 

\---

Vanya was… not doing too great right now. 

Her powers were so strong, and she had no idea how to control them. All her father had done was suppress them, and clearly  _ that _ hadn’t worked right, since here she was having ended the world. 

Also, her powers tended to make everything  _ loud. _ Like it was right now. 

So loud, and she was automatically and instinctively pulling that noise in and turning it into energy and she had  _ no idea _ where to put it all. 

She clamped her hands over her ears, dragging in a slow breath through her nose. Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit. 

A cool hand closed around her wrist and she jumped, pulling back and staring at a girl- woman- wait, what was her name? God, Vanya was so stressed right now. Cass, that was her name. 

“Sorry.” Cass said, letting go of her wrist. Vanya let out a shaky breath and shut her eyes again. 

“Are you… okay?” Cass asked. 

“I- don’t know.” Vanya admitted tightly. 

“Loud?” Cass asked with sympathy. Vanya nodded tensely. 

Cass considered for a moment, then smiled and said, “Come.”

Vanya tilted her head to the side and stood, following the younger woman down the hallway. 

“It… gets  _ loud  _ for Tim… too, sometimes.” Cass said, and Vanya wondered if English wasn’t her first language. 

“Here!” Cass led her into a small room with lots of blankets and pillows all over the floor. “Quiet room. No noise from outside.” 

The younger woman shut the door, and sure enough, the noise from outside the room was cut off and it was blissfully quiet. Vanya let out a slow breath and smiled, cautiously. 

Cass smiled back. 

\---

Dick idly flicked through news reports, frowning quietly. Nothing new seemed to be happening, which was good. Hopefully Five would be able to recharge and take his siblings home, and figure everything out. 

_ “Breaking news- in the midst of wormholes opening in several major cities, we have now heard about a mysterious breach opening in the middle of Indiana. This breach did not seem to be tied to any major cities and we are currently unaware if anything came through it or went through it.” _

Dick sat up straight, eyes narrowing. That was new. New and probably not a good thing. 

“Hey, B!” he called. “I’m gonna call Donna and take a trip to Indiana.” 

“Why?” Bruce asked, appearing in the doorway. Dick silently pointed at the screen. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think Cass is canonically a bit older than Jason? So she’s an adult.   
> I did decide that Tim’s autistic because this is my fic and I can do what I want and also there’s plenty of canon evidence that he’s autistic. So. I would not love to have a quiet room, tbh, because too much quiet makes me want to claw my ears off, but I know a lot of autistic people really like quiet when it gets too loud and sensory overload happens and stuff. So I figure some quiet would help Vanya, as long as it wasn’t the kind of suffocating quiet that the vault was. Like, as long as there was someone else in there and she could easily open the door.   
> Come find me on tumblr @cassandra-starflower!   
> For The Umbrella Academy: @numberfivetheboy  
> For DC/Batfam: @timdrakeisbaby


	13. Ben, Damian, and Lila

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ben tries and fails to come up with a game plan, Damian sulks, and Lila tracks down the Hargreeves.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am back from a few days of being totally stuck on this fucking chapter. I should absolutely be studying for Latin, but instead I will post this and THEN study. Hope everyone enjoys this chapter, which features Ben being a wee bit angsty, Damian doing a lot of introspection, and Lila being Lila.

Ben sat down on the curb outside of the rest stop, frowning at the overcast sky. His feet hurt from all the walking he’d done, but the rest of the pain had largely dissipated. Although his throat still hurt from all the screaming he’d done. 

So. He was in another universe, and he desperately hoped his siblings were here too, and he also desperately hoped that he would be able to find them. 

Fast. 

He rubbed at his throat, wincing as it scraped uncomfortably. He hadn’t screamed like that since he’d… well, since he’d died. 

He hadn’t exactly had a physical body to scream with, after all. 

Okay. 

Okay. 

He just needed to. Find his siblings. 

… 

Ben had no idea what to do. 

Shit. He pressed his palms against his face and let out a shuddering breath. 

What now? 

\---

Damian was not entirely sure how to feel about the Hargreeves still. It was undoubtedly a complex situation, and he was sure Father was working to ensure that the visitors caused no harm to them and their universe, but he could not help the lingering suspicion. 

Even giving them a tour had been difficult. He had distracted himself for several hours in the wake of the tour by fuming in his bedroom and staunchly ignoring his siblings, but he could not truly stop being aware of the presence of outsiders. He had had far too much situational awareness trained into him, and far too many attacks had been conducted in the dead of night as he slept, by supposedly trustworthy figures who had in actuality been sent to test him. 

Yes, Damian was well aware that this was an unhealthy mindset. Unfortunately for Richard and the rest of his family, it was not one he was likely to drop anytime soon. His grandfather was still far too much of a potential threat, and Damian himself, being Robin, was not likely to be out of danger for quite some time. 

Vigilance was a necessity. 

A knock sounded at the door when Damian was a good three hours into his sulk, and he scowled and barked “Who is it?” 

“It’s Steph, gremlin. Dinner time!” 

Then the footsteps padded away. Damian scowled harder, and stood. 

Fine. He would go have dinner with the family. 

_ Reluctantly.  _

\---

Ben had been having a mild panic attack for roughly five minutes and was therefore exhausted, having already worn himself out with all the screaming and walking and ripping through the fabric of reality he’d already done today. 

“Hey, buddy, mind letting us know why you’re setting off our sensors?” 

Ben jerked his head up to stare at a young man (probably a few years younger than Ben’s siblings, well, except for Five, who was either much younger or much older than this guy, depending on how you looked at it). Standing behind the young man (who was carrying a device of some sort which vaguely resembled a gun and a tablet all at once) was a young woman who shared the black hair and blue eyes of the man, though Ben didn’t think the two were related. 

“What?” he croaked, wincing as the action tore at his damaged throat. 

“Our sensors,” the man repeated. “They’re very fancy. And they detect stuff like, oh, I don’t know, breaches in the fabric of reality and the people and things that caused them.” 

Ben froze, eyes widening. The Horror practically  _ screamed _ “enemy! enemy! attack! kill!” inside of him, and he clamped his arms across his midsection and stuttered out a small, rasping “what? I don’t, I-I-” 

Taking pity on him, the woman asked, “Do you know anybody with the last name Hargreeves?” 

“You know my siblings?” Ben burst out immediately, tensing.    
“Your siblings?” the man asked suspiciously. “They told us there were only seven of them, and that one was dead.” 

“I was.” Ben rasped. “Dead, I mean. And now I’m not. I don’t know what happened.” 

The two exchanged a look. 

“Alright,” the young man said, “I think you’d better come with us.”

\---

Dinner was unpleasant, particularly without Richard there to smooth things over. 

Conversation was rather stilted, though Klaus and Allison Hargreeves made valiant attempts at pretending that this was a normal circumstance. 

Damian volunteered to help Pennyworth with the dishes solely to escape the room. He was fairly certain several of his siblings wished they could do the same. And at least one of the Hargreeves, Luther, was clearly also longing to escape. 

Damian rinsed another plate and put it in the dishwasher, remembering how when he’d come here, he would never had done something like this. 

Sometimes, he very much disliked his past self. 

Well, frequently. 

For a wide variety of things, ranging from the actual murder to the simpler things like sneering at Pennyworth and refusing to do any sort of housework or chores. 

The murder was usually the thing he regretted most, but he really had been terrible back then. 

Though Damian was self-aware enough to know that most people still regarded him as terrible. Mostly because of how he spoke and his self-confidence. 

Possibly also because he was still a tad, how did Drake put it,  _ stabby.  _

Pennyworth shooed Damian from the kitchen a few minutes later, and he reluctantly went back into the dining room, where everyone was finally getting up, complete with awkward glances and some more stilted conversation. 

And then an unfamiliar woman’s voice with a British accent rang out from the doorway. 

“Well, haven’t you gotten yourselves into a real mess?” 

\---

Lila smirked as all eyes turned toward her. Of course, her mother had taught her how to make an entrance. 

She hadn’t learned much about comics as a child, but oh, well. She knew enough about comics to know Batman’s secret identity, thanks. That had made it easy to find the Hargreeves. 

Easy to find her way here. 

“Lila?” Diego gasped. 

Lila’s smile widened. 

“Hello, Diego,  _ lovely _ to see you again. Under… interesting circumstances.” 

The Hargreeves exchanged wide-eyed stares, then turned as one to look at her with suspicious eyes, one and all, while the Bats all tensed and reached for weapons they didn’t have on them. 

Well, most of them. The little one with the angry face, who reminded her a lot of Five actually (murderous parent-killing little shit), had an actual proper knife, the kind you stabbed people with, in his hand and had pulled it from God-knows-where. 

Of course, if she was remembering correctly, there were a few assassins or ex-assassins or whatever in the ranks of Batman’s friends. 

This was going to be  _ fun. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is going to be fun for me and for Lila and for pretty much no one else. :) Except for you guys. Probably.   
> Ugh, I got so stuck on this chapter…   
> I’ve written some new extras which will end up being posted at some point no doubt, and started on the next chapter with an absolutely excellent and very funny conversation that won’t be at the beginning of the chapter but I absolutely needed to write it.   
> Come find me on tumblr @cassandra-starflower!   
> For The Umbrella Academy: @numberfivetheboy  
> For DC/Batfam: @timdrakeisbaby


	14. Five and Steph

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lila is here! Five does not want to deal with this, and Steph learns new things about one of their guests.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another update!! Yay!  
> I think this is my first Steph POV? I hope it seems in-character.  
> I’m honestly not sure how to feel about Lila… so I tried to be very even-handed with her. She’s not an angel, but she’s not horrible, either. She’s pretty sly, fairly focused on herself (she was raised to be that way) and is recovering from a really severe betrayal. She does feel affection towards Diego at least, and doesn't particularly hate any of the Hargreeves, though she obviously doesn't like Five much.  
> She’s also really enjoying herself right now.

Five really did _not_ need to have to deal with Lila right now on top of everything else. 

He didn’t _want_ to deal with her. 

He most certainly was _not_ going to deal with her. Lila was Diego’s mess. Not his. No matter what role he may have unintentionally played in her childhood. 

No. Nope. No. 

Not going to deal with this. 

He was already injured and very tired and last time he’d seen Lila, she’d thrown a cast iron pan at his head. 

(She’d also been murdered by the Handler before he’d reversed time, but Five wasn’t thinking about that part.) 

“Who are you?” demanded Bruce Wayne suspiciously. 

“I’m Lila.” she said, leaning casually on the doorframe. “I’m a… _friend_ of Diego’s.” 

Diego’s mouth was hanging open, like a moron. Five slowly inhaled, exhaled, and resisted the urge to either scream or roll his eyes. 

This was definitely _not_ his problem. 

“What.” said Klaus. “Wait, hang on, what? I know you _know_ each other and I was totally there in the barn, but I had no idea what was going on except you worked for that scary lady who tried to kill us a whole bunch and that you ditched with that briefcase.” Five’s most annoying brother flailed as he spoke, which was very normal for him and very annoying for his siblings since Klaus had _no_ sense of where his limbs were in regards to his siblings. Getting smacked in the face by a flailing medium was not fun. 

Lila laughed. “Alright, fair enough.” Her eyes flicked across the crowd and she smiled again, clearly enjoying herself. Five glanced at the exits, wondering if he could sneak out before she saw him. 

He had just remembered one tidbit from a very old comic that had survived the apocalypse, one which he had read during one of the interminably long days in the wasteland of Earth after his failed attempt at time travel. 

_Batman doesn’t kill._

More than that, he was pretty sure that Batman hated people who _did_ kill. 

Which was… a _problem._

Even though he had already decided he was done with the killing, that didn’t mean he _wouldn’t_ if he needed to. To protect his family. 

(He would do _anything_ to protect his family.) 

Which was why he would rather not be arrested or kicked out of this house. He needed to keep his siblings safe. 

Five slid back a few steps. Lila’s eyes locked on him. 

“Oh, it’s you.” she said in a tone of distaste. 

“Oh, it’s you.” he replied in the same tone. 

“Little shit.” 

Five adopted a look of complete disinterest. “I don’t have time for this.” 

He walked out. 

\---

It had been politely requested that someone (Steph was volunteered for this mission, because who knew why) keep an eye on Five, because his siblings were apparently concerned about homicide. 

“What kind of homicide?” Bruce asked suspiciously. 

“Well…” Luther said, hesitantly. “Five can sometimes be… a bit… well…” 

“Hair-trigger?” Allison suggested. 

“Aggressive?” Klaus offered. 

“Reactive?” Vanya added. 

“Violent.” Diego muttered. 

Bruce raised his eyebrows. Steph sometimes envied his ability to speak with a single look. It was one that Cass shared and that Tim occasionally managed. 

Of course, this also came at the cost of healthy verbal communication skills, so Steph would stick with what she had. 

Lila snorted. “Violent’s one word for that little shit.”

Bruce looked over at Steph, who sighed and walked out of the room, wandering through the _massive fucking manor_ for a few minutes before finding the kid in one of the, like, _four_ living rooms in this _massive fucking manor._

“Hi.” she said, sliding into the room on sock feet and immediately crashing into the couch. Five stared at her. 

“Why are you here, exactly?” he asked. 

“Your siblings asked if somebody could keep an eye on you because they’re concerned about homicide.” 

“Hmm.”

Oh, God, he was like Bruce. Grunts and ‘hmms’ were not a replacement for actual words. 

Steph flopped onto the couch. 

There was silence for a long while as Five scribbled in his notebook. 

“Why does she hate you so much?” Steph asked Five, glancing over at Lila. 

“Because she thinks I killed her parents.” Five answered, frowning down at his notebook. 

“Why does she think you killed her parents?” Steph asked, startled. She really had not been expecting that. 

“Probably because I did.”

“You- what?” 

Five glanced up. “I mean, it was not exactly my idea. In order to get back to my siblings when I stranded myself in the future, I agreed to work for an organization that maintained the time continuum. My direct boss gave me the orders, I carried them out, that’s that.” 

Steph stared at him. 

“I’m not exactly fond of killing people. But I will. If I have to.” 

“Huh.” Steph said. “Maybe you should talk to Jason. He can be kinda murderous too. Although he actually doesn’t _not_ like killing, he just doesn’t do it because of Bruce’s _rules._ Oh, Damian used to be an assassin.” 

Five stared at her. “Isn’t he a child.” he said flatly. 

“Aren’t you?” she fired back. 

“I’m fifty-eight! I just accidentally messed up time travel and regressed my age!” he objected. Steph blinked. 

“That’s a thing? Like, that can happen?” 

“Yes.” Five hissed. “Time travel is a crapshoot.” 

“Huh.” Steph cocked her head to the side. “Okay.” 

Five grumbled quietly under his breath and looked back down at his notebook. 

Steph bolted upright. “Oh yeah! Anyway, yeah, Damian used to be an assassin. His mom is an assassin and his grandfather’s an evil assassin that is in charge of the League of Assassins and he was trained from birth to be an assassin, but he’s not anymore now that he lives here with Bruce, his dad.” 

Five slowly raised his head to stare at her. “Batman… had a child… with an assassin.” 

Steph shrugged. “Don’t ask me. I don’t know what happened. But I mean, if you ask me, B’s got a thing for bad guys. Look at Catwoman. Uh, do you know who-” 

“No.” 

“She’s an international thief. Jewels, mostly. She and Batman like to fuck on rooftops.” 

Five grimaced and went back to his notebook. Steph tilted her head to the side, staring at him. 

He was a weird kid. Old man? 

Whatever. He was weird, like Damian. 

And basically all of the Bats, honestly. 

And apparently his siblings, obviously. 

Steph flopped over and rolled onto her back, tugging a lock of hair in front of her and starting to braid it. 

Boy, every day brought _some_ new thing. 

Dick had disappeared somewhere investigating something or other. 

Well, wasn’t he going to be in for a surprise when he got back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not gonna lie, my favorite bit to write was definitely Five and Steph. Also, yes, that was foreshadowing future Five and Damian bonding. But first, Ben returns!!!!!  
> Also, the bit I had already written was the part where Steph asked why Lila hated Five, Five answered that Lila thought he had killed her parents, Steph asked why Lila thought that, and Five answered that he had killed her parents. I thought it was very funny, and I texted it to selenestarflower as soon as I thought of it.  
> Come find me on tumblr @cassandra-starflower!  
> For The Umbrella Academy: @numberfivetheboy  
> For DC/Batfam: @timdrakeisbaby


	15. Ben, Jason, and Five

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ben comes home. After all, home is the people, not the place, right?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I didn’t update yesterday!!!!! I started my period!!!!! My uterus hates me!!!!! And the feeling is mutual!!!!! Also I wasn’t sure what to write here!!!!! But I figured it out!!!!! Soft family hugs ahead!!!!!

Ben nervously twisted the drawstring of his hoodie around his fingers, winding it around each finger and tugging until his fingertips turned white, then letting it go and starting to twist the string around his fingers again. 

He wasn’t sure why he was so scared, except maybe that they all figured he was dead for good now. 

Well, this wasn’t the weirdest thing that had ever happened to them. Five had shown up after being gone for seventeen years, after all. 

Still, none of them had ever come back from the dead before. 

Well, except for Klaus, but that didn’t quite count the same way this did. Klaus had only been dead for a couple of minutes at most, not nearly two decades, and also Ben was small again. A teenager, like he had been when he’d died, not the man he’d grown into alongside Klaus. 

Which was a bit confusing, since he had been a ghost and all, and had died at seventeen, but it was something he tried not to think about too hard. 

Probably Klaus had managed to make him grow up alongside his siblings, despite the fact that he really technically should have been an unchanging ghost. 

He’d seen all the other ghosts. They never aged or changed. 

But there he’d been, the same age as Klaus. 

Now he was seventeen again, awkward and a little bit clumsy thanks to the whole “being dead” thing since he hadn’t had a physical body in literally almost two decades. 

Except when he’d possessed Klaus, but that didn’t really count. 

His throat still hurt, so there were definitely downsides to being alive and having a physical body that could feel things, but he was pretty sure he could actually hug his siblings once he saw them again and hugging Diego had been so nice, so he really wanted to hug his siblings. 

He followed the two people who’d found him (they had said their names were Dick and Donna, and Ben honestly had no idea who they were at all, so maybe he should have paid better attention to comic superheroes) up the big steps to the big house. It was possibly bigger than the Academy. Definitely had a fancier exterior, since it actually looked like a house instead of a city block. 

Dick rapped on the door and then swung it open, yelling, “I’m home!” 

Donna laughed and followed Dick into the house. Ben awkwardly trailed after them. 

“Hello!” Dick called. A new person popped around the corner, a teenaged boy. 

“Hey Dick. Some woman who knows the, uh, guests, showed up and I think she doesn’t like them much.” 

“Huh.” Dick said, heading towards the doorway the kid had emerged from. The kid shot Ben a deeply curious look and retreated into the room. 

“Dick, I’m heading home!” Donna called. Dick twisted around to give her a hug and she headed for the door. 

Ben swallowed and untwisted the drawstring around his fingers. 

Then he followed Dick into the room, a living room. There were strangers scattered through the room, plus some woman who had a briefcase propped by her feet, one that was a Commission briefcase, so was probably the woman the kid had referred to, and all of Ben’s siblings except Five. 

Everyone turned to look at them. 

And all hell broke loose. 

\---

Jason was not having a good time right now. 

The weird lady, Lila, was clearly kinda pissed at the Hargreeves for no apparent reason. 

It had been explained, briefly, that she was “like us”, whatever the hell that meant, and had powers, and that they had met recently. 

Then Dick got home. 

Tim popped out to update him, very badly from what little Jason could hear, and then Dick waltzed right on in with a teenager behind him. 

The kid was Asian and wearing all black, and looked incredibly nervous as he stepped out from behind Dick. 

Then all hell broke loose. 

“Ben?” Diego shouted, jumped to his feet. “What the hell, you said he was gone!” He directed this at Vanya, who shrank back. 

“I thought-” 

“Holy shit, you’re a baby again!” Klaus said. 

“How are you  _ alive?” _ Luther asked, and Allison nodded. 

The kid, Ben, apparently, said, “I don’t know how I’m alive, okay? I just- woke up in a weird place and then I ended up in Indiana! Here. What the hell is happening?” 

“Holy shit.” Diego said. 

Allison made a strangled noise and stood up, rushing over to hug Ben, who wrapped his arms around his sister and buried his face in her shoulder. 

And then all of the Hargreeves were rushing over just as Five reentered the room with Steph trailing behind. 

“What’s all this noise about?” Five demanded, sounding like a crotchety old man. 

“Hi.” Ben said, peeking around his siblings. 

Five froze, eyes widening. 

“Ben?” he asked hesitantly. 

“Yep.” 

“Get over here, Fivey-” Klaus reached for the kid, who didn’t bother trying to escape the group hug, a look of wonder in his eyes. 

Jason was absolutely not choking up, thanks. 

He kinda regretted the whole murder thing. Yeah, there probably wouldn’t have been a group hug or whatever, but at least he could’ve, like,  _ not _ tried to kill Tim and Bruce and kinda everybody. 

Yeah, he regretted the murder thing, a little bit. 

Jason turned away from the family reunion and walked out quietly. 

\---

Five wasn’t sure what he’d been expecting when he’d gone to investigate all the noise, but it wasn’t this. 

He didn’t say anything, though. He wouldn’t ruin this moment. 

He just curled his fingers into Ben’s hoodie and let Klaus rest his chin on Five’s head. 

His whole family, alive and together. 

He had never thought he could ever have this again. Not after he had left. 

He had thought he couldn’t save Ben. That had been the one thing he couldn’t fix. Too many variables, too much risk. 

But now, Ben was living and breathing right there in front of him. 

Five swallowed, hard, and dug his fingers into Ben’s hoodie harder. He suddenly couldn’t see through the tears in his eyes, and he blinked, determined not to let them fall. 

He had his whole family back, alive and here and with him. He could protect all of them now. 

And he would. 

He would protect them with everything he had. 

Five  _ refused _ to ever lose his siblings again. 

Never again. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think this is the first time I’ve ever written something actually fluffy? Except for maybe a few little one-shots that never included so much cuddling and hugs? This fic is somehow the most hug-and-cuddle-filled thing I’ve ever written?   
> How?   
> Especially since I wrote this entire chapter while on my period and not to be stereotypical but the last time I cranked out a chapter in an ongoing work while on my period, I was writing “when the good times come it’ll all be that much better” and I killed off a character, so.  
> I probably should be putting a little more effort into the upcoming apocalypse plot thread, but as of posting my head feels fuzzy, I think I’m dissociating a little bit, I just finished two peer reviews for my Professional Writing course, and my cramps from Thursday have returned with a vengeance. So I’m just sticking with soft family love for the moment.  
> Come find me on tumblr @cassandra-starflower!   
> For The Umbrella Academy: @numberfivetheboy  
> For DC/Batfam: @timdrakeisbaby


	16. Tim, Allison, The Girl

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Bats find out what Ben’s power is, Allison marches Five and Ben upstairs to sleep and has a bit of a breakdown, the Girl ruminates on power, specifically Allison’s, and a surprise happens.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :)  
> Sorry this chapter took so long, I’m a disaster. But it’s longer!  
> In other news, it’s my sister’s birthday today! Happy birthday selenestarflower!

Once the Hargreeves had stopped crying and clinging to each other, Ben provided a bit of a more thorough explanation. 

“I woke up in this dark place, where there wasn’t any light at all. Um, I think the Horror was there?” The formerly dead teenager’s voice was a bit raspy, in a way that just screamed that it was hurting him to talk. 

Tim glanced at Bruce, wondering if this ‘Horror’ had come up at some point when he wasn’t in the room. 

“So the Horror and I kind of ripped out of that place and then I ended up in Indiana.” Ben concluded. 

Five frowned, rocking forward onto his toes. “The Horror? Was it in the usual place or was it-” 

“Outside.” Ben said, which made no sense until he went on, “not through the portal.” 

“What portal?” Steph asked. 

“The one in my stomach that I can summon eldritch monsters from.” 

“Wh-” Steph started, gaping. She wasn’t the only one. 

Since Allison hadn’t told them anything about what Ben could do, it was a surprise, a kind of unpleasant surprise, to learn that this teenager could summon eldritch horrors via a portal in his stomach. 

“What.” Tim finished Steph’s sentence. 

Ben shrugged. 

Tim rubbed his temples and tried very hard not to sigh. The whole day just kept getting crazier and crazier. 

“Okay,” Allison said, frowning at Ben, “wait, hang on, is that blood?” 

Ben rubbed his chin, where, sure enough, flakes of dried blood clung to the skin. “Uh, I think I screamed too much.” 

All of the Hargreeves siblings looked rather pale at that. 

“Okay, then, I think you should, rest, I guess.” Allison grabbed Ben’s arm, then glanced at Bruce. “If that’s alright.” 

Bruce just nodded, frowning. Probably because of how everyone had gotten all upset because Ben had blood on his chin. It was a tad concerning. Especially since apparently he’d been dead. So. You know. Not good, probably. 

“Okay.” Allison then seized Five’s arm and said, “You too, Five. Bedtime!” 

She marched both of them upstairs. 

“Um.” Steph said. “Not to be weird, but. That kind of sounded like my mom.” 

“Yeah, Allison has a kid.” Diego said, frowning. “I think she still has a kid? We messed up the timeline pretty badly. I don’t know.” 

Tim winced at the implication. He wasn’t the only one. 

\---

Outside the room, Allison’s footsteps stuttered briefly before she shook her head and marched her brothers up the stairs. 

No time to think about that. Not right now. 

She maneuvered Five and Ben into bed, threatened them with bodily harm if they didn’t sleep, and went back out, shutting her eyes and pressing her forehead against the wall. 

_Claire._

She had been trying so hard not to think about her daughter, about the little girl she loved so much, the child that might not even exist anymore. 

Allison could have wiped her own daughter from existence. Claire might not exist anymore, all because Allison and her siblings couldn’t stop the goddamn apocalypse. 

Allison thunked her forehead against the wall and swallowed, trying not to cry, pressing her palms over her mouth. 

_Claire, oh Claire, I’m so sorry._

She might never see her little girl again. 

Never, ever again. 

And oh, it _hurt._

_I want Claire. I want her to be here!_

Allison crumpled to the floor with a wordless wail, sinking against the wall, agony lancing through her heart. 

_Claire!_

\---

The Girl looked up with a frown at the shriek that echoed in her ears. 

Something was happening, a twist in reality, and her eyes narrowed. 

Someone was doing something. Changing something. 

The Girl gripped the handlebars of her bicycle and tried to figure out what was causing that feeling. 

She traced it back to its source: Allison Hargreeves, who was grieving her daughter. 

The Girl frowned harder. 

Allison Hargreeves, who was, unknowingly, telepathically crying out her daughter’s name. 

Allison Hargreeves, whose powers warped reality. 

Allison Hargreeves, who was calling her daughter so strongly that said child was beginning to stir in the aether. 

The Girl closed her eyes. 

Nothing she could do about that. Maybe it would help, actually. 

The Girl pinched the bridge of her nose.

So sometimes there were minor issues that came with giving people incredible power. 

And so sometimes those issues arose in situations like this. 

See, Allison Hargreeves had the power to manipulate reality itself, whether she was entirely aware of this or not. 

And when reality could be whatever you chose… 

Well. 

As the saying went, power corrupts. 

_And absolute power corrupts absolutely._

And warping reality was a heady power indeed, as Allison had shown her husband Raymond. 

Allison had spent years and years using that power to her heart’s content, never truly realizing the depths of it. 

_I heard a rumor that I’m perfect for the role._

Well, she couldn’t change herself, the one thing she couldn’t Rumor into something new, but she could change the role. 

And just like that, she really was perfect for the role! How could anyone have ever thought differently?

_I heard a rumor that I got it in one take._

Well, she could certainly ensure that it worked out like that. Make it so that she _had_ done it perfectly. So that everything had worked out perfectly, every crew member in the right place, every other actor doing their job perfectly, everything coming out just right, like Goldilocks, like a puppet show with Allison pulling the strings. 

_I heard a rumor that you think you’re just ordinary._

How lucky, in a sense, and yet how unlucky, in another sense, that Allison had phrased it like that. That Reginald had been hesitant to entirely strip Vanya of her power. _You_ think _you’re just ordinary._ Not truly stripping those powers away. Just locking away the memories of them. 

Then again, would even Allison have been able to take away such a vital part of Vanya? The Girl was doubtful. Those powers were, after all, a gift from her. 

_I heard a rumor that you love me._

That one was trickier. Emotions were hard to artificially bend, surprisingly. Or rather, deep-seated _feelings_ about someone were hard to force a change to. If you loathed someone, it was hard to make you love them. If you loved someone, it was hard to force you to hate them. 

It was a sort of safeguard, really. One that the Girl was often relieved about. 

But you could manufacture a feeling, for a while. It might never fade, depending on the power behind it. 

Power. 

Reality. 

The power to manipulate reality to your liking was a dangerous one, and not for the first time, the Girl thought perhaps it was one that should never have been bestowed on _anyone._

Allison was, really, the best suited in maybe the entire world to have that power. She was strong, she could endure, even through everything that her powers brought upon her and everything she brought upon the world. 

But really, truly, the Girl did fear what could happen if Allison lost everything. Reached inside herself the way Vanya had done in that cold underground vault. 

If Allison found that well of power and _used_ it, to its fullest extent. 

The end result would inevitably be the end times. 

Really, any of the Hargreeves could probably cause the apocalypse, even Luther and Diego. Allison could tear reality apart, Klaus could rip open the veil between worlds and let the dead loose upon the living, Five could, as he had already done, rip open time and space and leave the world crumbling, Ben could summon so many eldritch horrors from the farthest reaches of the cracks and gaps between universes, and Vanya, well. 

The Girl had seen what Vanya could do. 

And right now, Allison was doing something desperate, without even realizing she was doing it. 

Not enough to cause any real problems. Enough to maybe raise some questions. She’d done some reality-warping things like blowing up people’s heads before, not that she remembered that, but this would definitely open her eyes to the wider reaches of her power. 

The Girl sighed. 

So much. 

_So much_ was happening. 

Just one quiet decade, maybe two, where she didn’t have to worry about the world. That would be very nice. Relaxing. 

Instead she was fending off the end times.

\---

Deep within the aether that formed the very outer edges of reality, there existed the souls of those who could-have-been, who never quite came to be, for whatever reason, whether they be children whose parents never ended up having sex, or however many other reasons a child might never be born, or even like Claire Hargreeves-Enslet, who had once existed but who had been wiped from reality. 

Four-year-old Claire Hargreeves-Enslet slowly began to wake, and as her consciousness reformed and her body came back into existence, fueled by her mother’s desperate longing, grief, and overwhelming power, Claire’s eyes opened. 

A moment later, there was a little girl lying on the floor in the upstairs hallway of an immense manor, wrapped in her mother’s arms. 

And Allison Hargreeves let out a bewildered cry of “Claire!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> …yeah, so I didn’t see this coming either. But the family wasn’t really complete yet and honestly still isn’t (we’re missing Raymond and Dave but I don’t know if I’ll actually pull them in because the cast of characters is getting REALLY big and I don’t know if I can handle it), so I, uh, made up what happened to Claire when the timeline changed and then kinda resurrected her.  
> Cliffhanger!  
> I did make up Patrick’s last name, since we don’t get one.  
> Also, the Girl’s section is REALLY long and i kind of crammed a bunch of headcanons in about their powers and stuff and also why we don’t see Allison using her powers for anything except to convince people of stuff except for a very brief moment in the first episode of Season Two, and I really don’t think that if she could just tell people to die or whatever that she would have gone for the “murder your brother” thing because she is definitely smart enough to know that would cause problems.  
> Also the Girl's little "just one or two quiet decades please" thing is me right now, christ why we can't just have a FEW FRICKING MONTHS where I don't have to worry about politics it'd be VERY NICE.  
> Come find me on tumblr @cassandra-starflower!  
> For The Umbrella Academy: @numberfivetheboy  
> For DC/Batfam: @timdrakeisbaby


	17. Five

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Claire is alive! and Five is losing his mind. So many people he needs to protect.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I had a run-in with a suicidal man outside my dorm on Thursday (he got help, I ran inside my dorm and told the front desk worker and she called someone and he was found and brought to the hospital), but it was ABSOLUTELY terrifying and I got very distracted and didn’t really write anything, so.   
> This chapter comes with a trigger warning! Five has a flashback in this chapter. If you need to avoid that, skip from the section that starts with “He needed-” and start again at the section that starts “Diego knelt in front of him”.   
> IDK if anyone needs this, but if you do!

Allison’s shriek brought the whole house running, including Jason (from the library where he’d decided to hide out) and Ben and Five (who had not, in fact, gone to sleep. To be fair, it was difficult to fall asleep quickly and Allison had spent perhaps two or three minutes having her little session of grief for her daughter in the hallway after sending the two of them into the guest room before screaming like that and scaring everyone).

Allison was kneeling on the floor, cradling a little girl, an oddly familiar little girl with a dark poof of curls and chubby cheeks, a little girl who looked a whole lot like Allison had as a child, holding the little girl so gently and carefully in her arms and- Allison was  _ sobbing.  _

Five was pretty sure she had never thought she would get to have her daughter back again. 

He stared at the two, at the mother and daughter, at his sister and his niece. 

“Allison?” Luther asked cautiously, staring at the child. 

The little girl opened her eyes. “Mommy?” 

“Claire!” Allison tugged the girl up against her and hugged her tight. 

“Holy shi-” Klaus broke off when Vanya smacked his arm. “Holy, uh, cow.” 

“What’s going on?” Claire asked her mother, wiggling a little bit in Allison’s arms. 

“Oh, my God.” Allison choked out, clutching Claire. 

“How-” Diego asked, staring at the two.  _ How,  _ indeed. 

Five stared at his niece, wrapped up in her mother’s arms, and backed quickly up into his room. 

The guest room. 

Whatever. 

His niece. 

She was alive, somehow, and he’d panic about the  _ how _ later, figure out that maybe Allison was more powerful than they’d realize  _ later,  _ try to figure out how the holy hell his sister was able to summon and resurrect a child that had probably completely ceased to exist from another universe (something their father had probably never even known she was capable of, and Five would worry about it  _ later _ because right now-).

His chest felt tight. 

His family was alive, his whole family was alive and breathing and in this manor right now, just outside in the hallway, alive and breathing and here and warm and  _ not dead- _

He needed-

He needed to protect them. 

He needed to- 

He- 

_ He couldn’t, oh God, he couldn’t, he had tried SO HARD- _

Five squeezed his eyes shut and shuddered. He needed to protect them, needed to save them, needed to make sure  _ all _ of them lived, and now there was a child who had no training, no powers (that they knew of), and, oh God, he had no idea what to do. 

She needed to be  _ safe, _ obviously, but it had been hard enough, so hard, to protect his siblings, who had powers and training (except Vanya in the case of the latter, but she was powerful enough to maybe make up for the lack of training) and he had no idea how to protect a child that  _ wasn’t _ extraordinary. Wasn’t like him, like his siblings, like-

Five couldn’t breathe. 

Something brushed his face, his cheeks, his nose, and he opened his eyes and a scream caught in his throat. 

Ash. Ruins, wreckage, the greasy remnants of bodies and buildings and  _ life _ torn away by a vicious fire that had mercilessly destroyed everything. 

He tasted ashes, blood, and death. 

He was back in the apocalypse, he could smell rot, could smell burning flesh,  _ death- _

“No.” Five whispered, heart rate picking up, breaths faster, terror hitting him. He nearly collapsed, but, shaking, pulled the soft collar of his shirt up over his mouth and was startled into remembering that he absolutely should not be standing in the apocalypse. 

It  _ hadn’t happened,  _ not here. 

“This isn’t real.” he mumbled, stumbled over rubble that felt too real, collapsing into the corner and cramming himself back against the hot plaster. “This isn’t real, it isn’t real, it isn’t real, no-” 

His back burned. 

His cheeks were wet. Wasted water, some part of him thought blankly, somewhere underneath the gibbering, all-consuming, absolute  _ panic. _

_ No, no, no, no, no, please.  _

He clamped his hands over his ears, shirt still pulled up over his mouth, trying to block out the ash, the faint crackling of flames, the sound of his name-

Wait. 

His name? 

But no one was left to call his name, right? No one- 

Hands, on his shoulders, and Five jerked back against the wall, shaking. 

“Five!” 

And then it was gone, the ash, the rubble, the heat, the  _ pain. _

He sagged against the cold wall, still trembling, and lowered his hands, let his shirt drop, and looked up at the person who had managed to wake him from the flashback. 

(And God, how much he hated this. It had only happened rarely, once or twice, and he hated it so much, felt so weak and so pathetic-)

Diego knelt in front of him with a strained look on his face. “You okay?” 

Five took a deep breath, flexed his fingers, and said, “I’m fine.” 

There was a snort from the doorway. 

“Sure you are.” Jason said, rolling his eyes. “That was a hell of a flashback or whatever it was.” 

Five narrowed his eyes and repeated, “I’m. Fine.” before pushing himself to his feet, still glaring, and making his way over to the bed. 

Nothing was on fire. No one was dead, staring at him with empty eyes, cold and stiff and  _ deaddeaddead- _

Five dropped onto the bed a little too hard, jostling his aching head and his quietly throbbing shrapnel wound and all the other little injuries that had piled up over the last two weeks, and grabbed the blankets, glaring harder. 

Allison peered around the door, looking worried. Her eyes were red-rimmed and she was still holding Claire. 

What a great first impression. 

Five scowled harder and hissed, “Out!” 

Diego gave him a long look and went to the door, shooing Ben into the room and Jason out. 

Jason went with another eye roll. He seemed on edge for some reason. He hadn’t been acting like that before Ben had arrived. 

Ben padded over to the bed and slid in, yawning, before glancing at Five. “Are you gonna be okay, then?” 

Five sighed, feeling a bone-deep exhaustion. 

Ben had always been the best at understanding Five, no matter how close Five had always been to Vanya. 

“Eventually.” he sighed, falling back against the pillows and shifting around to get comfortable. 

“Okay.” Ben said softly. “Just-” 

Five turned his head, glancing at his brother, who stared at him with complete and utter sincerity. 

“You don’t have to do everything by yourself anymore, you know that, right? You’re not alone. You’ve got us. Let us help, okay?” Ben said, meeting Five’s eyes. 

Five would admit that his first instinct was to scoff and turn away. He didn’t  _ need _ any help. 

But. 

Well. 

Ben was right. Not a surprise. He usually had been, when they were children. 

Five sighed again. “I know.” 

Ben gave a little nod and grabbed the blankets, tugging them up to cover both of them. “Just like when we were kids, huh?” 

Five felt the smile creep onto his face without his permission, and he turned his face away to hide it. “Maybe a bit.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope this chapter was good! I’ve never had a flashback before, so this is in part created thanks to the many lovely fic writers who depict flashbacks/panic attacks in their work, and also the several flashbacks (PTSD-triggered) in TUA, most particularly Five’s flashback in one of the earlier episodes of Season One and Klaus’ flashback stuff in Episode Five.   
> I am approaching midterms and starting to have trouble with the story, so updates are probably going to slow WAY down.   
> Come find me on tumblr @cassandra-starflower!   
> For The Umbrella Academy: @numberfivetheboy  
> For DC/Batfam: @timdrakeisbaby

**Author's Note:**

> Come find me on tumblr @cassandra-starflower!


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